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PROVIDENTIAL EPOCHS. 



BY 



FRANK M. BRISTOL, D. D. 




CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS. 

NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON. 

1894. 



i>- 



COPYRIGHT 
BY CRANSTON & CURTS, 



.3 Bfc 



PREFACE. 



T^HE contents of this book first took form in 
a series of lectures on Providential Epochs, 
intended for Christian young people, who were 
presumably taking up certain courses of reading 
along historical lines. The author's aim was 
simply to furnish an incentive to the more thor- 
ough study of those events which had ever 
seemed to him demonstrative of the history- 
shaping activity of Divine Providence. The 
limitations of a lecture precluded the possibility 
of exhaustive treatment. The author claims 
originality in nothing. He hopes for nothing 
more important to come of his book than a 
desire on the reader's part to know more of 
these great epochs by the study of the recog- 
nized authorities. It will be most gratifying 



4 Preface. 

to hope that such study may promote a belief 

in the Providence of history, a confidence in 

the world's perpetual advancement and a growth 

of pure and lofty patriotism in the hearts of our 

American youth. 

F. M. B. 

EVANSTON, 1894. 



CONTENTS 



I. 

Page. 

The Renaissance, 7 



ir. 
The Reformation 113 

III. 
The Discovery of America, 155 

IV. 

The SETTI.EMENT OF OUR COUNTRY, 219 

5 



ILLUSTRATIONS, 



•Florence, Frontispiece. 

"Giotto's Portrait of Dante, Facing page 17 

Lorenzo de' Medici, " " 24 

/Savonaroi^a, " " 39 

Execution of Savonaroi.a, " " 85 

'-Michael Ang. Buonarroti, " " 98 

''Raphael " " 96 

^' Moses" by Michael Angelo, " " 99 

/St. Peter's Cathedral, " " 104 

Martin Luther, " "113 

4>HILIP Melanchthon " " 136 

-John Calvin, " " 140 

Christopher Columbus, " "155 

"Amerigo Vespucci, " "197 

George Washington, " "219 

~7oHN Wesley, " " 254 

John Hancock " " 263 



I. 

The Renaissance. 



7 



THE RENAISSANCE. 

ART and letters have vied with romance and 
arms in giving fascination to 

" The lovely land of Italy." 

This sunny peninsula, by nature beautified and 
by genius made classical, has furnished the stage 
on which have been cast many of the most brill- 
iant and important scenes in the drama of 
History. 

A study of these scenes will leave the impres- 
sion upon our minds that neither the vigor and 
the simplicity of the old Roman Republic, nor 
the power and greatness of the Empire of the 
Caesars, have added a more charming and inter- 
esting chapter to the history of progress than the 
intellectual activity and art triumphs of the Re- 
naissance. The Renaissance was a short and 
brilliant era of less than a single century; it 
was but an epoch — an intellectual awakening — 
prophesying ages of enlightenment, and a final 
civilization of universal humanism. 

The philosophical student looks upon an in- 
tellectual revival or a religious reformation as the 

2 9 



lo Providential Epochs, 

result of a growth, the germ and genesis of 
which may often be too remote and obscure to be 
defined. The events which mark an epoch in 
the world's development are seldom, if ever, the 
result of a single and discernible cause. While 
some writers have given what they suppose to 
be the precise dates of the beginning and close 
of the Renaissance, the more philosophical stu- 
dent must assume that the initial date of a 
grand moral or intellectual movement is as re- 
mote and obscure as its causes. 

It is sufficient to say that the Renaissance, in 
its full-orbed brightness and clearly-defined his- 
toric character, belongs to the fifteenth century. 
It may be confined within seventy-five years of 
that century — the span of a single lifetime. 

A rapid survey of the events which lead up 
to this epoch will help us to understand its his- 
toric place and relations. Five hundred years 
from the Golden Age of Augustus, the Goths had 
stripped the last Roman emperor of his power. 
But long before this the storied greatness of 
Rome had passed away ; her forum no longer 
echoed with Ciceronian eloquence ; her acade- 
mies were closed ; and no poet could string anew 
the charmed lyre of Virgil, or fill again the mu- 
sical reed of Horace. 



The Renaissance. ii 

The sword with which the mighty Julius had 
conquered the world was in the dust, and not a 
hand in Rome was strong enough to raise it in 
victorious self-defense. The art, learning, states- 
manship, and military power of the Latins had 
been a story of the past for two hundred years 
when x\ttila the Hun swept down with fury into 
Italy, and made the cruel boast that the grass no 
longer grew where his horse had set his foot. 
Paganism had spent its force. The fabric of so- 
ciety, which rested on military power, or on 
mere worldly culture, though often beautiful and 
imposing, had, by the very logic of its character, 
crumbled to its ruin. A race enervated by cen- 
turies of indulgences born of wealth or power 
became the easy prey of the still vigorous con- 
querors from the barbaric North. 

Everything intellectual and aesthetic perished 
when the sword and torch of the barbarian swept 
across those old classic realms, and the con- 
queror made sad havoc of whatever remained of 
the monuments of ancient taste and culture. 

Turn to the East. Three hundred years after 
the age of Pericles the glory of Greece had van- 
ished like a dream, and her career as the most 
highly-developed civilization of history had 
passed into a very tale of enchantment, almost 



12 Providential Epochs. 

too splendid and fascinating to be true. For five 
hundred years succeeding the Roman conquest 
this civilization suffered decline in art, learning, 
statesmanship, manhood, and all that once made 
it the highest realization of culture in organized 
society. Then, like Rome its conqueror, weak- 
ened by its sensualisms, it fell before the relent- 
less invaders. 

Alas for the creations of a Phidias arid a 
Praxiteles, where the ruthless barbarian has had 
his sway! Alas for the beautiful sculpture and 
architecture which had been the pride and tri- 
umph of a Periclesian civilization! What had 
those whirlwinds of passion and conquest in 
common with the placid beauty of Phidian art, 
the sublime strains of Attic eloquence and song, 
the serious, patient philosophies of the acade- 
mies of Greece ! 

The names of Homer and Sophocles, Solon 
and Lycurgus, Plato and Aristotle, Phidias and 
Apelles, had lost their charm and inspiration. 
The achievements of the great, like their names, 
were forgotten, and their masterpieces lay in ob- 
livion, like their noble ashes in neglected graves. 
The beautiful light of Grecian culture, like the 
splendor of Roman arms, had fallen into night 
and chaos. 



The Renaissance. 13 

As yet the North was not well out of a vigor- 
ous savagery ; the light of art and letters had not 
penetrated the gloom of barbarism. The Saxons 
and Normans, Britons and Franks, with all their 
native prowess, were strangers to polite learning. 
By the ninth century they had come, in the de- 
velopment of institutionalism, to the feudalism 
in which they remained for the four succeeding 
centuries. 

Turning again to the South and East, we 
look upon the Mohammedan conquests of the 
eighth century. Fanaticism followed barbarism, 
to bury in still deeper oblivion every trace of the 
culture and refinement that lingered about the 
ruins of classical antiquity. 

But, saddest calamity of all, history must re- 
cord the corruption of the Christian Church. Its 
ecclesiasticism became political, tyrannical, and 
oppressive, while its doctrines and forms of wor- 
ship fell into superstition and paganism. Dante 
sang in sorrow, if not in bitterness: 

"The Church of Rome, 
Mixing two governments that ill assort, 
Hath missed her footing, fall'n into the mire, 
And there herself and burden much defiled." 

Thus Europe passed under the cloud of what 
may justly be called the Dark Ages. Little or 



14 Providential Epochs. 

no progress was made in literature, art, science, 
freedom, or religion. The dust and debris of 
Rome's decline and fall, with the subsequent 
havoc wrought by Mohammedanism, and the 
conflicts of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, 
were sufficient in themselves to effect a social, 
intellectual, and moral chaos of a thousand years. 
Since the advent of Christianity and the fall 
of pagan nationalism, there had as yet arisen no 
new civilization worthy to be compared in brill- 
iancy and grandeur with Rome or Greece, Egypt 
or Israel of old. History furnishes no other age 
that may be more philosophically denominated a 
transitional age. There was a complete and uni- 
versal shifting of European society from old to 
new foundations. The pagan ideas of society, 
the sociologies of culture or of force, had been 
at work for thousands of years, and in their most 
brilliant and conspicuous triumphs had but dem- 
onstrated their fallacy and insufficiency in the 
problem of a universal civilization. It was dur- 
ing the disorder and confusion of the fall of the 
pagan social fabric that the Christian idea of 
civilization began to operate in laying the foun- 
dations of a new order of things. This new and 
divine idea had to contend with many hostile 
forces ; to work in the darkness and debris ; to 



The Renaissance. 15 

meet and overcome paganism, barbarism, fanati- 
cism, and even a corrupt ecclesiasticism and de- 
grading superstition, which were clothed, bnt 
only clothed, with the beautiful livery of heaven. 
Standing on the other side of this stupendous 
transition, the true philosopher of history might 
have been justified in predicting that the fall of 
the Roman Empire would be followed by many 
thousands of years of chaos. And it is not sur- 
prising to one who stands on this side of the 
Dark Ages that it took a thousand years for in- 
tellectual Europe to find her way to a new light 
and to the promised day. 

Finally the sky began to clear. Dante ap- 
peared, the first great epic poet since Virgil. 
He became the father of Italian song, and made 
Italian literature classical. He did more. He 
antagonized the papacy, and protested against 
the ecclesiastical abuses and corruptions of 
Rome. He pleaded for righteousness and liberty. 
He attributed the broken and dismembered con- 
dition of Italy to the political ambitions and in- 
trigues of bishops, cardinals, and popes. He 
laid the crimes of oppression, simony, tyranu)-, 
sensuality, and political murder at the very doors 
of the Church. He was banished from Florence 
through the influence of the papal power. But 



1 6 Providential Epochs. 

he used his pen as warrior never used his sword 
against his persecutors. Perhaps one of the 
most reasonable interpretations of the " Divine 
Comedy" which has appeared is that which rep- 
resents this great epic as a religio-political at- 
tack on Rome. This was the position of Dante 
Gabriel Rossetti, commentator on Dante, and Pro- 
fessor of Italian in King's College, London. If 
this interpretation be the true one, then Dante 
was the first distinguished Protestant, antedat- 
ing Wyclif, "the morning star of the Reforma- 
tion," by a lifetime, and preceding Luther by 
more than two hundred years. 

Dante embodied both the intellectual and 
moral spirit of the dawning Renaissance, for we 
shall find that the epoch was characterized by 
mental and spiritual reaction from the policy of 
Rome. 

Dante was followed by Petrarch and Boccac- 
cio, who imbibed the literary taste and the an- 
tipapal politics of the exiled Tuscan. They 
added elegance to the Italian language, and used 
their classical wit in a subtle exposure of the cor- 
ruptions of the priesthood, and the oppressive 
political ambitions and intrigues of the papacy. 

Contemporaneous with these bright literary 
geniuses, shone forth the first rays of light in 




GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE. 



The Renaissance. 17 

the firmament of art. Cimabue, the painter, 
Arnolfo, the sculptor and architect, and Giotto, 
who painted Dante's portrait, and was under 
the poet's theological if not political influence, 
came to be recognized as the heralds of the new 
art era. This was the opening of the fourteenth 
century. Dante died in 1321. Giotto passed 
away in 1336. There followed a hundred years 
of intellectual twilight, of 

" Darkness changing into gra3\" 

Then the morning dawned full and glorious 
upon Florence, 

" And what a light broke forth 
When it emerged from darkness!" 

Before the first quarter of the fifteenth cen- 
tury had passed, Italy was awake to a new in- 
tellectual life. This new life turned inquiringly 
toward antiquity. A reaction had come. It was 
no longer pious to be ignorant, nor impious to 
be learned. Independent intellects were begin- 
ning to rise above the bigotry and superstition 
which priestcraft had encouraged. There were 
appearing among the leading thinkers an ap- 
preciation of the culture of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, and a desire to unlock the long-hidden 
treasures of classic lore. Search was instituted 



i8 Providential Epochs. 

for every relic of ancient learning. A perfect 
mania arose to secure old manuscripts, and of 
these great collections were formed. These 
manuscripts of priceless value were assiduously 
studied and translated for publication. On the 
fall of the Eastern Empire men of Greek learn- 
ing poured into Italy, and Florence became the 
rendezvous of scholars from all parts of the 
world. The Greek and Latin languages were 
taught. The works of the old poets and philos- 
ophers were studied and discussed. The very 
ruins were read. The stones of Rome began to 
speak. Buried statues rose out of the earth. 
Men came forward, with money consecrated to 
the revival of culture, who were eager to pur- 
chase precious manuscripts, support lectures, 
found academies, build libraries, encourage au- 
thorship and art, and to promote the dawning 
civilization. Florence and Venice, Milan and 
Rome, seized the printing-press, and became 
the centers of publishing establishments whose 
works have not been excelled in typographical 
perfection and beauty by all the improvements 
of modern printing. The presses of Demetrius 
in Florence ; Pannarts in Rome ; Valdarfer, Jen- 
son, and Aldus Minutius in Venice, — enriched 
the land with noble editions of the classics. 



The Renaissance. 19 

Italy became a country of books and libra- 
ries. The academies and studios were thronged 
with a new race of geniuses, while above priests 
and bishops rose wits, poets, artists, and philos- 
ophers. A new day had brightly dawned. The 
Dark Ages were of the past. 

We have tried to indicate some of the re- 
mote and immediate causes of the Renaissance. 
These causes are recapitulated, (i) Dante, Pe- 
trarch, and Boccaccio created an Italian litera- 
ture, and revived the world's' literary taste. It 
is even claimed that they belonged to a secret 
society pledged to antipapal politics, and that 
secretly they instilled into the more progressive 
minds the spirit of intellectual freedom. (2) 
Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo raised art out of 
oblivion, and gave it its modern impulse, though 
they were but the heralds of a race of superior 
geniuses. (3) Constantinople fell before the 
Turks in 1453, and the remote and secluded 
scholars of the Greek Church came over into 
Italy with their remnants of classical learning, 
embers still aglow snatched from the altars of 
antiquity, to kindle anew in modern times a 
taste and culture hardly less refined and noble 
than that which 

" Made the olil time splendid." 



20 Providential Epochs. 

Before this, however, the influence of Eastern 
scholarship had been felt in Italy. In 1439 a 
Council of Greek and Latin Churches met in 
Florence to discuss the subject of ecclesiastical 
union. The Greek Church was represented by 
men whose classical erudition was in marked 
contrast to the poor scholarship of the Latin 
Church. The scholars from Constantinople 
could speak and teach the language of the Greek 
poets and philosophers. Their presence and 
comparatively good learning awakened a new 
intellectual life in Florence. (4) There was a 
spontaneous, almost instantaneous advent into 
the Italian world of a race of geniuses — men 
who proved themselves great in learning, art, 
and literature. (5) That mighty civilizing en- 
gine, the printing-press, was busily at work. 

These are a few of the many causes of the 
Renaissance. It may be more philosophical to call 
these the conditions rather than the causes of 
this great movement, if we are agreed to look 
upon this as a providential epoch. 

To those who recognize God's providential 
dealings with men and nations, the meeting of 
the Ecclesiastical Council of 1439 can not be 
looked upon as a mere accident or coincident. 
The meeting of the Council was changed from 



The Renaissance. 21 

Ferrara to Florence. During the deliberations 
of this body Cosmo de' Medici was Gonfaloniere 
of Florence. He had brought tranquillity to the 
Republic, amassed a great fortune, and displayed 
the most public-spirited liberality in the aggran- 
dizement of the city. This large-minded and 
progressive man was profoundly impressed with 
the learning of the Greek Churchmen. He at- 
tended the lectures given during the Council, 
and thereby was actuated to encourage the re- 
vival of Greek culture. He founded a Platonic 
Academy, invited to Florence the best Greek 
scholars and teachers then living, and even sup- 
ported the students in their pursuit of ancient 
learning. This Council met just when the po- 
litical tranquillity and financial prosperity of 
Florence favored study and the refined pursuits 
of literature and art. Had this Council met at 
any other city than Florence, or at any other 
time than during the ascendency of the Medici, 
it is impossible for us to see how it could have 
resulted in the remarkable intellectual awaken- 
ing which it produced in Florence in 1439. 

It can not seem a mere chance that the print- 
ing-press came just when the taste for the clas- 
sics revived, and when there was a universal de- 
mand for the reproduction of the literary works of 



22 Providential Epochs. 

the ancients; and jnst when libraries were being 
founded, manuscripts were being discovered and 
translated, and academies were being endowed 
for the promotion of learning. 

Faust, Gutenberg, and Aldus were as provi- 
dential men as Dante, Wyclif, and Luther. The 
question may also be asked, How came it that 
all at once, out of the darkness of the fourteenth 
century, three great poets and three great artists 
shone like prophetic stars? There had been no 
apparent preparation for such men. They can 
hardly be looked upon as the natural product of 
the age. They seem to be born before their 
time. Their enlightenment belongs to later days. 
But it may just as reasonably be asked, How came 
it, later on in England, that within the narrow 
limits of sixty years such geniuses as Sidney, 
Spenser, Greene, Jonson, Marlowe, Bacon, 
Raleigh, Shakespeare, and Milton, shone out in 
their undying brilliancy? What is the philos- 
ophy of the sudden appearance of that galaxy of 
geniuses which shed light and glory upon Italy 
during the fifteenth century, and to whose intel- 
lectual greatness is due the enlightenment of the 
Renaissance ? The only true philosophy of it 
all seems to be this, that there is a power of 
Providence at work in history, bringing the race, 



The Renaissance. 23 

epoch by epoch and sun by sun, up to a perfect 
humanism and up to the ideal civilization. 

We may look upon' this epoch as it reaches 
its midday brightness through the character and 
work of its three most powerful and distinguished 
men, Lorenzo de' Medici, Jerome Savonarola, and 
Michael Angelo Buonarotti. Lorenzo, popularly 
named Magnificent, was the most conspicuous and 
potent political genius of the age, Savonarola 
was the greatest moral and religious force, and 
Michael Angelo was the most original and au- 
thoritative art genius. We may study almost any 
phase of the Renaissance through these men. 
They did much to give the epoch its character 
and historical importance. 

The intellectual condition of a people is largely 
determined by their political institutions and by 
the character of the ruling authorities. The 
Medici were despots, and yet they were bene- 
factors. They were accused of robbing the peo- 
ple of their liberties, but those liberties did not 
consist of that noble and humane system of 
checks and privileges which is the groundwork 
of either a democratic or republican self-gov- 
ernment. No word had sunken into worse 
abuse than " liberty." It was the shibboleth of 
every political faction that sought the highest 



24 Providential Epochs. 

place of power. It meant mobocracy and an- 
archy, freedom from restraint, and individual in- 
dependence of law and government. " Liberty" 
had kept Florence in a perpetual turmoil, with 
faction fighting faction, family plotting against 
family, numerous guilds and trades unions con- 
tending for the political supremacy, and civil 
authorities antagonizing ambitious ecclesiastical 
powers. If ever there was a demand for the 
*' strong man," it was then. If despotic govern- 
ment ever had a mission in the world it was 
there, and if any despotism was ever justifiable 
and beneficial, it was the despotism of the 
Medici, which brought order out of confusion, 
and peace out of political and social turmoil. 

One of the most interesting and influential 
families of history was the Medici. The most 
gifted and historically conspicuous members of 
this family were Cosmo, the founder of its 
financial prosperity and political influence, the 
richest man in Italy; Lorenzo the Magnificent, 
the patron of culture ; Leo X and Clement VII, 
popes of Rome; and Catherine, "wife of one 
French king, and mother of three." 

Modern culture, if not modern freedom, owes 
more to Lorenzo the Magnificent than to any 
other member of this illustrous family. He was 




LORENZO DO' MEDICI. 



The Renaissance. » 25 

the son of Piero, and grandson of Cosmo. On 
the death of his father Piero, he was invited to 
the political leadership of Florence in 147 1, at 
the early age of twenty-three. The influence 
and greatness of the Medici came to a climax in 
his career. Symonds may seriously and justly 
write : " What the intellectual world would have 
been if the Italian nation had not devoted its 
energies to the restoration of liberal learning 
can not even be imagined." As justly may it 
be added, and how that restoration could have 
been effected without Lorenzo de' Medici can no 
more easily be imagined. 

Of the undaunted political ambition of this 
elegant despot, there can be no doubt. The ne- 
cessities of the times may have been its justifi- 
cation. That very despotism was doubtless the 
only form of government that could have se- 
cured peace. 

In calling Lorenzo a despot, we are not thereby 
justified in attributing every act of his adminis- 
tration of affairs to selfish and ambitious mo- 
tives. It can not be truthfully claimed that this 
man promoted culture and established peace in 
Florence and Italy simply from the sinister mo- 
tives of self-aggrandizement and tyranny. He 
was richly endowed with a pure taste, a profound 

3 



26 * Providential Epochs. 

love of art and literature, a genius for financier- 
ing and political leadership; and these were su- 
perior, in their inner control of him, to any 
despotic influences or mere ambitions for glory 
and power. IMoreover, there was doubtless a true 
spirit of liberalism in his nature which rose up 
in antagonism to the bigotry of Romanism — 
Romanism in its religio-political character. While 
he did not possess the devout and religious feel- 
ing of Dante, he was a true disciple of the polit- 
ical Dante. He could see, with the grand old 
Tuscan bard, that Rome aimed at the intellectual 
and political enslavement of Italy. He was fa- 
miliar with the intrigues and corruptions of Ro- 
man ecclesiasticism, and he despised the Church's 
pretense to holiness as he ridiculed the sancti- 
monious debauchery, profligacy, and worldly am- 
bitions of bishops, cardinals, and popes. He 
opposed the political encroachment of the papal 
power in its tyrannical design to subdue all the 
Italian States to Roman control. By a scheming, 
liberty-hating ecclesiasticism he was looked upon 
as an enemy of the Church when he was putting 
forth every effort to establish the political tran- 
quillity of Italy, secure to every State its rights, 
restore decayed learning to its ancient glor)-, and 
lead the age up oiit of its superstitions and ig- 



The Renaissance. 27 

norance to intellectual freedom. Lorenzo may 
not have seen the Reformation which was logic- 
ally to follow the Renaissance, nor could he have 
dreamed of the Protestantism which was to be 
the fruit of the revival of learning. He worked 
far better than he knew to bring a higher civili- 
zation into history than had ever charmed his 
imagination. He was the man for that great 
hour, and less a slave of personal ambition than 
unconsciously the servant of Providence. How- 
ever completely his qualities may have concealed 
grave faults, and to however great an extent his 
wealth, liberality, and love of intellectual prog- 
ress may have indirectly aided him in establish- 
ing his prosperity and securing his own political 
supremacy, it were wholly ungenerous and un- 
philosophical to brand his virtues of character 
and his great, beneficent achievements with the 
suspicion of ignoble impulses and selfish designs. 
There can be no doubt that we have too credu- 
lously looked upon Machiavel's exposition of the 
character of a prince as the very photograph of 
Lorenzo de' Medici. If the character and achieve- 
ments of Lorenzo inspired Machiavel's political 
ethics, which seem detestable to the enlightened 
thought of the nineteenth century, nevertheless, 
the same defense which Macaulay makes for 



28 Providential Epochs. 

Machiavel may be offered for Lorenzo. He was 
the fruit of a cruel and corrupt age. He be- 
longed to an era that was just coming up out of 
moral, political, and intellectual chaos. The best 
morals of the time were pagan. Plato, Aristotle, 
and Cicero were better ethical teachers than the 
Church. The pure and simple teachings of 
Christ and the apostles had been covered up 
with the corruptions, false doctrines, and tradi- 
tions of the Middle Ages, and only one sonorous 
voice was lifted, toward the close of Lorenzo's 
life, in proclaiming righteousness, liberty, and 
charity; that was the voice of Savonarola, the 
man whom Lorenzo hated and dreaded most, 
but the only priest to whom he was willing to 
confess as he lay dying in Careggi. We can not 
expect the men of that time to bear the moral 
scrutiny of this. We marvel that an age which 
tolerates a Sixtus IV, an Innocent VIII, an Al- 
exander VI, and a Lucretia Borgia can produce 
a Savonarola, a Mirandola, a Michael Angelo, and 
a Vittoria Colonna. We do not wonder that even 
Machiavel and Lorenzo de' Medici are looked 
upon by just historians as good men for the age 
in which they were called to act their parts. 
This may be said of Lorenzo: that, among the 
despots then ruling Italy, he stood, in point of 



The Renaissance. 29 

talents, power, and virtue, the foremost of his 
time. And if we look abroad toward the rulers 
of France, Spain, and England, or if we turn our 
attention to the Roman pontiffs, hardly a charac- 
ter appears which does not suffer in a compari- 
son with Lorenzo de' Medici. No sovereign sat 
upon a European throne, no pope assumed the 
triple crown, no despot established his power 
over an Italian State during his supremacy in 
Florence, who, either in genius or learning, in 
wealth or liberality, in friendliness to and sup- 
port of the intellectual revival, was worthy to 
stoop and unloose the sandals of Lorenzo the 
Magnificent. 

But in offering this tribute to his work and 
worth, we do not wish to conceal the glaring 
faults of this prince. We have no mantle, save 
that of charity, with which to cover his multi- 
tude of sins. If the faults of great men like 
Lorenzo, Napoleon, Caesar, Diderot, Voltaire, 
Goethe, Bacon, Byron, and Shakespeare miist be 
covered, let it not be with the flowers of rhetoric ; 
let it not be by misrepresentation and falsehood ; 
but rather by the pure, white mantle of charity; 
or let them not be hidden at all. The ambition 
which made Lorenzo a despot, his love of glory 
and display which prompted a most prodigal ex- 



30 Providential Epochs. 

travagaiice, the worldliness and sensuality which 
inspired many an excess, must remain in the 
world's memory as grievous blemishes of an oth- 
erwise great character and vastly influential life. 
But when we have scrutinized Solomon in the 
midst of all his glory; Belshazzar, exulting in 
his Babylonian splendor ; Alexander, in the full 
flush of his greatness and dominion ; Pericles, in 
his Athenian pride and prosperity ; the Ccesars, 
in their imperial supremacy ; the Stuarts, the 
Tudors, and the Plantagenets, in all the pomp and 
magnificence of their reigns ; and the Napoleons, 
the Bourbons, the Orleanses, and the Valois, in 
their most splendid power, — we are disposed to 
look upon the Medici of Florence with a kind- 
lier eye, and with less asperity to criticise the 
acknowledged faults and sins of Lorenzo. 

There was not a man in Italy, or in all Eu- 
rope, at that period, who, as a politician, a finan- 
cier, a scholar, and a friend to intellectual prog- 
ress combined, was worthy to be compared to the 
Magnificent. Through the genius, philanthropy, 
and political sagacity of this despot there came 
iipon Italy a peace and prosperity which that 
country had not known for a thousand years. 
This happy state of external tranquillity, as we 
have stated, favored the most intense intellectual 



The Renaissance. 31 

activity that the world had experienced since the 
days of Augustus. In the midst of this political 
rest and financial ease the revival of art and 
learning made rapid progress, reminding the 
world of the days when the Greeks were charmed 
with the art of Phidias and Apelles, and of the 
age of Augustus, when the Romans took pride 
in the sublime song of Virgil and the learned 
periods of Livy. Florence was the center of this 
reviving culture, as it was of the financial and 
political life of Italy, while the patronage of Lo- 
renzo made the palace of the Medici the center 
of Florence ; hence, the center of the intellect- 
ual world. 

Lorenzo was perhaps the most elegantly edu- 
cated ruler of his day — the most highly accom- 
plished in all that pertained to polite learning 
and aesthetic culture. His own poetic genius 
was of an order to warrant Sismondi in saying : 
" The first man to whom may be attributed the 
restoration of Italian poetry was one of the 
greatest of his own and of succeeding ages — 
Lorenzo de' Medici, Chief of the Florentine Re- 
public, and political arbiter of the whole State 
of Italy." 

But even more may be said to Lorenzo's 
credit as a man of literarv taste and genius than 



32 Providential Epochs. 

that he was the restorer of Italian poetry, and 
one of the finest political geniuses of his age ; 
for in his encouragement of every branch of 
learning, in his liberal patronage of all who gave 
promise of scholarship or literary taste and pro- 
ductiveness, in his hearty welcome to and friend- 
liness for genius and ability in whomsoever it 
might appear, in his personal relations of munifi- 
cence to schools and academies, he displayed that 
spirit which entitled him to wear without re- 
proach the name of " Magnificent." 

To his high credit be it said, Lorenzo invited 
the companionship of the most intellectual men 
of the age. It was not the rough soldier, the 
scheming politician, the sordid money-maker, 
nor the fawning courtier that won the society, 
the admiration, and the favor of this prince. He 
enjoyed the company of geniuses, the converse 
of the learned, the society and personal intimacy 
of poets, philosophers, wits, artists, statesmen, 
and teachers. With his name, therefore, must 
be associated the names of the high-minded of 
that age. Conspicuous among these were : Fi- 
cino, the foremost Platonic scholar ; Politian, 
master of Greek and Latin lore, accomplished 
wit, philosopher, and poet; Landino, the inter- 
preter of Dante and the regenerator of Dantean 



The Renaissance. 33 

Italian ; the youthful Machiavel, the most subtle- 
minded publicist ; Pico, the Prince of Mirandola, 
elegant in culture, refined in manners, public- 
spirited and liberal toward the intellectual move- 
ment of his time ; Pulci, the charming orator ; 
and Alberti, the universal scholar and many- 
sided genius. Happy the age enlightened by 
such intellects! Great — essentially great — the 
man whose tastes attract the companionship, and 
whose liberality encourages the development, of 
geniuses like these! 

Lorenzo had as pure a taste for art, and as 
noble an ambition to aid its progress and devel- 
opment, as he had for literature and the advance- 
ment of learning. Not only had he established 
and vastly enriched the most valuable library in 
Europe, where precious manuscripts of ancient 
literature were deposited, but Lorenzo's house 
was a depository of paintings, sculptures, coins, 
engraved stones, rare gems and antiquities, which 
were the envy of native princes and of foreign 
kings. It was admitted that the finest treasures 
in all the world were collected in the house of 
the Magnificent. 

The traveler who to-day stands entranced 
among the art treasures of the Ufiizi Gallery in 
Florence, and carries from that enchanted spot, 



34 Providential Epochs. 

through many lands and many years, an indeli- 
ble and delightful memory thereof, must feel in- 
debted to the Medici, and in particular to Lo- 
renzo, by whose taste, liberality, and noble 
ambition many of those glorious creations of 
genius and those immortal expressions of beauty 
were accumulated. 

Lorenzo's ambition was not satisfied, how- 
ever, with merely collecting art treasures for his 
eyes to feast upon to the satiety of his inborn 
love of beauty, but he also endeavored to give 
every encouragement and incentive to the awak- 
ening and development of an aesthetic taste and 
a genius for art, and to the production of great 
works in architecture, painting, and sculpture. 
At a vast expense he turned the Gardens of St. 
Mark into a school of the highest plastic art, 
where the ancient models were studied, and a 
taste for the antique was created and fostered 
into genius. True, since the first dawn of the 
Renaissance many noble and gifted artists had 
passed away, but a new generation of geniuses 
had appeared; and we find Lorenzo surrounded 
by a class of artists far superior to those who 
had come up under the patronage of his grand- 
father Cosmo. Florence was rich in master- 
pieces of sculpture and architecture before Lo- 



The Renaissance. 35 

renzo's time. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Aiigelico, 
Ghiberti, and Donatello had already embellished 
the beautiful city with those miracles of art 
which, even to this day, are the glory of Flor- 
ence and the pride of Italy. The Campanile of 
Giotto, Brunelleschi's dome, Ghiberti's wonderful 
gates of bronze, and some of Donatello's works of 
sculpture, remain in many respects unique and 
peerless in beauty, though it can not be ques- 
tioned that these great men were followed by a 
still higher order of geniuses under the inspira- 
tion of a more profound and universal art en- 
thusiasm, and of a more liberal patronage and 
vigorous rivalry. The progress in painting was 
even more marked than in sculpture and archi- 
tecture, and greater improvement was made 
on Cimabue, Giotto, and Masaccio, than per- 
haps could have been made on Brunelleschi, 
Ghiberti, and Donatello. Lorenzo's age was 
adorned with the names and achievements of 
such artists as Lippi, Ghirlandaio, INIantegna, 
Perugino, Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, and 
Michael Angelo. All these artists, with the ex- 
ceptions of Bramante and da Vinci, felt the in- 
fluence and enjoyed, to some degree at least, 
the patronage of Lorenzo. The four greatest 
artists of the Renaissance were born before 



36 Providential Epochs. 

Lorenzo passed away. When the Magnificent 
died, in 1492, Titian and Raphael were but boys ; 
Leonardo da Vinci was in his prime of manhood 
and power ; and Michael Angelo was a youth of 
eighteen years, at work in the school of sculp- 
ture, and enjoying the affection and favor of the 
prince, who had taken him from his father to 
educate him in art. Lorenzo has been desig- 
nated not only as the patron of Platonic philos- 
ophy, the promoter of learning and literature, the 
regenerator of Italian poetry, and the political 
arbiter of Italy for his time, but also, and as if 
it were a still more glorious distinction, he must 
be known as the man who *' kindled and fanned 
the flame of genius in the breast of Michael 
Angelo." 

Florence and the Medicean patronage were 
the center and original impulse of the glorious 
enthusiasm for high art which swept over all 
Italy. The Tuscan splendor was emulated. The 
Florentine love of beauty was imbibed by sister 
States. Leonardo da Vinci, though out of all 
sympathy with the Medici, was nevertheless a 
Florentine. He kindled a glorious flame of art 
enthusiasm in Lombardy. 

Angelo wrought in Florence and in Rome.. 
Venice, "a glorious city in the sea," became 



The Renaissance. 37 

brilliant with the achievements of those princely 
colorists, Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. 
Parma came to exult in the wonderful works of 
Correggio, who could look upon the master- 
pieces of Raphael, and still exclaim : "And I, 
too, am a painter." Thus all Italy was finally 
ablaze from the light kindled in Florence largely 
by the liberality and culture of the Medici, and 
more particularly by the uncommon genius of 
Lorenzo the Magnificent. 

Few characters in history present more 
marked contradictions, a more heterogeneous 
mingling of great qualities and great faults, than 
this Florentine despot. He was a sensualist 
and a philosopher, a despot and a benefactor, a 
politician and a poet, a debauchee and patron of 
art and learning, cruel and benevolent, worldly 
and scholarly, mean and magnificent. His gos- 
pel was simply a gospel of culture; his religion 
intellectuality. Lorenzo inspired no moral 
greatness in his people or age. We find here, 
as we may find in the study of Jerusalem and 
Solomon, of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, of 
Athens and Pericles, of Rome and Augustus, of 
France and Louis XIV, of England and Elizabeth, 
that a nation and a people may be highly cultured 
in art and scholarship, in poetry, philosophy, sci- 



38 Providential Epochs. 

ence, and even theology, without being pure, he- 
roic, and humane. Brilliant genius, profound 
erudition, and elegant manners may be wedded 
to a sensual, even cruel moral nature. One may 
cultivate the arts and sciences, drink deeply at 
the well of philosophy, adorn his mind with a 
knowledge of the wisdom, wit, and song of the 
classic ages, become intellectual, aesthetic, rich, 
and powerful, without attaining to that moral no- 
bility and disinterestedness of motive, that love 
of right and man and God, which are essential to 
the highest style of character, and to the most en- 
during greatness. We find Lorenzo de' Medici 
deformed by the same immoralities which blem- 
ished the characters of Solomon, Alexander the 
Great, Pisistratus, Julius Caesar, Louis XI\', and 
Napoleon, while, though superior in genius and 
learning, he was lacking in those high virtues 
and noble qualities of soul which belonged to 
Cromwell, Washington, Gustavus Adolphus, and 
William of Orange ; and to those noble sons and 
benefactors of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, 
and Garibaldi. Lorenzo de' Medici was not the 
moral reformer of the Renaissance. 

The first problem to be solved in the founda- 
tion-work of the new civilization was an intel- 
lectual problem — the emancipation of reason, the 




SAVONAROLA. 



The Renaissance. 39 

liberty of thought, the settlement of the prerog- 
atives of culture, and the mission of literature, 
art, and science in modern history. Lorenzo de' 
Medici may not have seen the end toward which 
his powers toiled and achieved. Nevertheless, 
he put himself, his splendid genius and activi- 
ties, into this work of intellectualism, on which 
the higher social fabric must necessarily rest. 
Lorenzo, even with his autocratic, despotic spirit, 
could not solve the problem of his age single- 
handed and alone. Others wrought heroically 
to establish this foundation — this first secure 
resting-point for the imposing superstructure of 
freedom. 

In 1452, as the dawn of the new learning was 
spreading over Italy, there was born in Ferrara 
one who was destined to attract as much atten- 
tion and create as profound a sensation as any 
man in his time. This man, Jerome Savonarola, 
was a monk at the age of twenty-three. Though 
up to this period nothing of great moment had 
occurred in this young life, nevertheless one 
skilled in the interpretation of the human face 
might have suggested that something important 
was likely to happen at any instant in the soul 
which kindled those eyes into flames and knot- 
ted that brow into meditations. That is a face 



40 Providential Epochs. 

to attract attention. Every feature indicates 
strength. The prominent, hooked nose ; the 
large and rugged brow ; the burning, heavily- 
lashed eyes ; the large, strong mouth ; the deli- 
cate, finely-wrought nervous system ; a face 
"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," are 
significant of character which, sooner or later, 
may be expected to make itself felt in power 
and authority among men. But those who knew 
him well had come to have their thoughts about 
this boy Jerome before he had startled the world 
by his power. Savonarola was a natural mys- 
tic, possessed of an essentially devout, unworldly 
nature. He communed with his own heart and 
thought much while yet a boy. He easily grew 
sick of the vain pomp and glory of the world. 
His great blue eyes had often wepft over the 
world's misery and sin, when the eyes of priests 
and bishops, and of cardinals and popes, were 
dry as stones. Alone, in meditative and prayer- 
ful mood, he often strolled through olive-groves 
and the blooming fields, and by the streams 
whose solemn monotone made harmony with the 
beating of his serious, sorrowing heart. While 
yet a lad his mind displayed great vigor and 
subtlety. He grasped truth in all its forms with 
eagerness, so that he became the wonder and 



The Renaissance. 41 

admiration of his instructors. He mastered the 
subtleties of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, 
and exhausted the whole range of the scholasti- 
cism of his time. The Bible, however, was to 
him the supreme Book. This he hid in his 
heart, like one of old. He was given also to 
poetical fancies, and with no mean success 
courted the sacred muse. His parents came to 
regard him as their most promising son, and, 
with worthy pride and ambition, destined him to 
the profession of medicine, the foremost profes- 
sion of the day. He was destined, however, by 
a higher Power, to become a physician, not to 
the bodies of men, but to the corrupt morals and 
manners, to the sick nation and age that sur- 
rounded him. 

At the age of twenty there came a new light 
into those great eyes, which ever burned under 
the knotted brow like watch-fires under the tow- 
ering mountain. That new light was the light 
of love, kindled there by the grace and beauty 
of an exiled Florentine, who boasted the noble 
blood and name of Strozzi. But that light was 
soon quenched, and quenched forever, by the 
haughty refusal of the Strozzi to recognize the 
equal nobility of Savonarola. The last cord 
which bound this strong soul to the world had 

4 



42 Providential Epochs. 

thus been broken. All this may have contrib- 
uted to his after strength and greatness.. There 
are men in history whom Providence seems to 
have foreordained to a high and holy celibacy 
necessitated by their mission in the world ; and 
there seems to be no violation of the law of the 
fitness of things when such men as Elijah, John 
the Baptist, Paul, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da- 
Vinci, and Savonarola live alone, and, single- 
handed, single-hearted, do their mighty work for 
God and man. There was a destiny before Sa- 
vonarola quite irreconcilable with his tender af- 
fection for the lovely Florentine. And yet his 
cheek flushed with proud passion, his eyes fired 
with the lightning of anger, and his eloquent 
lips said stinging, hurting words in retaliation 
for the scorn of the proud girl-^and the charm 
was broken. He became more thoughtful than 
ever, more secluded, more penitent and prayer- 
ful. The world lost for him its every enchant- 
ment, and the life of the recluse assumed an 
irresistible fascination. The convent seemed to 
the devout mind of Savonarola a refuge from 
the storm and a haven from the tempest. The 
cowl and garb of the monk became vestments 
more beautiful and honorable than the crown 
and robe of royalty, while the inmates of con- 



The Renaissance. 43 

vents and the dignitaries of the Church were 
more like angels than men to his over-sanguine 
imagination. Alas that all these things should 
prove disappointing delusions to his devout and 
most sincere heart! He found the convent a 
moral pest-house; monks and nuns were lepers 
of sensuality ; priests, bishops, cardinals, and 
popes were princes of profligacy ; the cowl and 
miter, red cap and tiara, were the adornments of 
ignorance, superstition, hypocrisy, and arch vil- 
lainy. He who had sought the companionship 
of monks and priests for sympathy and spiritual 
affinity found them whited sepulchers. He who 
had turned to the convent to study the Bible 
found that pagan Aristotle and his half-under- 
stood philosophy had superseded Jesus and his 
heavenly Word. He who had turned to the 
Church for light, peace, and rest, found darkness, 
discord, envy, rivalry, greed, and profligacy. 
Where Savonarola expected to find spirituality, 
he found bestiality/;'' where he sought for peace, 
he discovered contention ; where he turned for 
purity and chastity, he beheld corruption ; where 
he looked for the reign of love, he gazed through 
his tears upon the reign of lust and cruelty. 
He asked for a fish, but they gave him a ser- 
pent ; he asked for bread, but they gave him a 



44 Providential Epochs. 

stone^yes, a scorpion. So would it have been, 
so was it, to every devout soul that turned for 
light and truth and spiritual good to the Church 
of Rome in the fifteenth century. 

Savonarola, therefore, forever sincere, devout, 
and conscientious, found rising within him, not 
only disappointment and grief, but holy indigna- 
tion and a strong, unquenchable spirit of pro- 
testation, which were but the first mutterings of 
that fiery volcano of rebuke and warning, threat- 
ening and exhortation, which was to burst upon 
the Church and nation, and entitle him forever 
to be known as the preacher, reformer, and mar- 
tyr of the Italian Renaissance. 

The appointment of Savonarola to the chair 
of Belles-Lettres and Metaphysics in the con- 
vent of Bologna was a recognition of his superior 
intellectuality and scholarship ; yet it in no de- 
gree harmonized with his tastes and feelings to 
be assigned the duty of instilling into the minds 
of young priests the philosophy of Aristotle. It 
was there, however, that a career opened before 
him of which he had never dreamed, and which, 
had he anticipated it, might have dissuaded him 
from entering the monastery. Perhaps no thought 
was more foreign to his mind the morning he 
turned his back iipon his home in Ferrara than 



The Renaissance. 45 

that he should become a preacher, much less a 
reformer; and, least of all, a martyr/. He turned 
to the convent for rest, seclusion, study, medita- 
tion, separation from the turmoil of the world. 
Yet the entrance of Savonarola to a monastic 
life meant, in the divine order of things, that he 
should become a preacher. For such a magnifi- 
cent combination of intellect, mysticism, learn- 
ing, conviction, courage, devotion, zeal, and elo- 
quence to turn preacher, meant to become 
reformer; and to become reformer in Italy, in 
the fifteenth century, meant martyrdom. 

■' Savonarola discovered the logic of his destiny 
as soon as the first premise was laid down in the 
order of Divine Providence, and as soon as he 
had fully assumed the vows of a monk. He 
knew what he must be, and what he must do 
and suffer, if he became a preacher. He could 
tell the end from the beginning, because he knew 
himself, and he knew the age in which he must 
act. There was nothing supernatural in his pre- 
dicting his own martyrdom after he had once 
consented to unseal his lips, and let the concen- 
trated wrath that was in him leap forth in con- 
suming flames. When we hear him praying for 
martyrdom, and soliciting it, we have no suspi- 
cion of bravado, hypocrisy, or charlatanism on 



46 Providential Epochs. 

his part, but we feel that this is his way of spur- 
ring himself up to that sublime self-surrender, 
that loyalty to conscience and truth, which, in 
so sinful an age, must reap the fiery harvest of 
martyrdom if they prove the soul genuine and 
heroic enough to please God and merit eter- 
nal life. 

Savonarola continued to teach and lecture in 
the convent at Bologna for seven years. During 
this period he proved to his own satisfaction the 
sophistry of Aristotle and the vitiating tenden- 
cies of all pagan philosophy and culture. Here 
also, and at the same time, he laid the founda- 
tion for his future extraordinary power as a 
preacher by a deep study and learned mastery 
of the Bible. 

At the age of thirty he stepped into a broader 
arena of activity and influence than that of rhet- 
oric and metaphysics. He appeared in Florence, 
which was destined to be the scene of the re- 
markable events in his remarkable career. 

Florence had come to occupy the foremost 
rank among the splendid cities of Italy and of 
the world. In financial prosperity and commer- 
cial importance no city could compete with the 
fair city of Tuscany. She had become the po- 
litical ruler of all Italy, so that even Venice, 



The Renaissance. 47 

Pisa, Milan, and Rome, though jealous of her 
power, acknowledged her supremacy in the po- 
litical affairs of Italy. But in a more conspicu- 
ous and unapproachable degree Florence was the 
center of the glorious revival of art and learn- 
ing, which not only lighted up Italy, but spread 
its brightness over Europe, and was destined to 
fill the whole earth with its glory. 

When Savonarola, at the age of thirty, first 
came to Florence, the Medici were in the me- 
ridian splendor of their greatness. Lorenzo the 
Magnificent was supreme, and the beautiful city 
was then, as it is still, exulting in the glory 
which had been born of the magnificence of this 
elegant despot. 

From every land — from Spain and England, 
Germany and France — inquiring minds came to 
drink at the fountain of learning which sprang 
up in the very palace of the Medici, and to lave 
in the crystal streams of poetry, philosophy, and 
classical learning which flowed therefrom in un- 
restrained freedom. Florence, in the fifteenth 
century, was the Mecca of culture — a great, 
beautiful, and fascinating city, rivaled in the 
wonders of its history by no capital of earth 
save Rome. Hither comes the conviction-driven 
Sav6narola to preach to a people who need it 



48 Providential Epochs. 

greatly the old gospel of holiness and charity. 
With all its wealth, art, and learning, Florence 
has more sins to repent of, more wicked ways to 
mend, more sonls that need conversion, than any 
city in Italy or ont of it. This wealth, art, and 
learning prove to be no surer an antidote for 
moral corruption in Florence than they did in 
imperial Rome, aesthetic Athens, voluptuous Cor- 
inth, and splendid Babylon of old. 

As our hooded Dominican friar, with his great 
brow, his great mouth, his great eyes, and his 
great soul, full of great convictions, comes for 
the first time into the midst of the glories of this 
beautiful but wicked Florence, wonder, awe, and 
hesitation, not immingled with admiration, hope, 
and prayer, take possession of his mind. Before 
him rise, in all their solid grandeur, the palaces 
of the Pitti and of the Medici, displaying not 
only great wealth in their construction, but also 
the finest architecture of modern Italy. The 
Palazzo Vecchio, simple, stern, and fortress-like, 
with its tower and famous bell, stands there 
guarding the square that is yet to be lighted up 
with a strange and tragic flame of martyrdom. 
There, too, is the Loggia to attract the eye, but, 
as yet, quite unadorned by Cellini's masterpiece 
and those fine forms of Greek and Roman art 



The Renaissance. 49 

which, in our day, make Florence and her beau- 
tiful Loggia the shrine of many a pilgrimage of 
culture. Now the j^oiing monk stands in amaze- 
ment and delight before the bronze gates of 
Ghiberti, which decorate the marble baptistery. 
As his eye reads thereon, wrought into such 
beauty as bronze had never assumed before, the 
sacred events of Bible history, doubtless he 
thinks what Angelo afterward exclaimed : "They 
are worthy to be the gates of Paradise." He 
turns, and lo ! rising in airy grace, the Campa- 
nile of Giotto throws such a spell of beauty o'er 
his vision that he doubts if human genius ever 
created that marble miracle, and wonders whether 
angelic architects did not build the glorious 
tower, and whether fairies in their beauty do not 
dwell therein. But now, most wondrous triumph 
of the early Tuscan genius, eternal pride of 
Florence, and boast of classic Italy, the dome of 
Brunelleschi bursts upon the young monk's bewil- 
dered view, and he stands entranced before that 
architectural magnificence, which he little thinks 
is yet to echo and thunder with his own mighty 
declamation. Finally Savonarola turns hissteps, 
we may imagine, toward the solemn cloisters of 
St. Mark. As the hooded stranger enters this, 
his new home, a spell of sacred enchantment 



50 Providential Epochs. 

seems to bind him. I Here it is that holy Atito- 
nino, like an angel, passed his life of virtue and 
benevolence, and the sweet fragrance of his 
memory lingers in the convent still. These 
walls and cloisters seem consecrated, and the 
feelings of this stranger monk are wrought into 
a fine feeling of devotion as he hears the story 
told again of how the "good Bishop of Florence" 
lived and worked for the glory of Christ and the 
happiness of man. Again, as he looks on those 
walls and ceilings of St. Mark, in cell and clois- 
ter, inspired visions of beauty seem to rise be- 
fore him ; for, with tearful eyes and swelling 
heart, and lips unsealed with holy wonder, he 
gazes, and grows not weary as he gazes, on the 
exquisite creations of the pencil of Angelico ; 
for here the artist-monk, the "angelic painter," 
wrought those forms of sacred beauty which are 
still, in their fading glory, the admiration of the 
world ; here the devout artist had often knelt in 
prayer, to ask that He who had decked the flow- 
ers in their unrivaled beauty and garnished the 
heavens with their eternal splendors might in- 
spire his humble pencil to paint for the glory 
of Christ ; and those angelic faces, those forms 
of the Madonna and the Savior, were painted 
there upon the convent walls while tears rolled 



The Renaissance. 51 

down the cheeks of the devout, almost inspired 
painter. With the spirits of the good Antonino 
and the devout Angelico, Savonarola seemed to 
commune that day when first he entered the 
cloister of St. Mark; and, as he threw himself 
upon his humble cot that night, he doubtless 
thought : 

"Of all the fairest cities of the earth, 
None is so fair as Florence." 

But alas ! Florence was fair only in external- 
ities ; her beauty was in marble, not in morals. 
With the revival of commerce, the increase of 
riches, the dawning of a new intellectual life, 
there had come a reign of extravagance, of aes- 
thetic worldliness, and of pagan sensuality. The 
Bible was neglected by the intellectual class for 
Plato, Homer, Cicero, and Virgil, while the peo- 
ple in common turned with a sensual avidity to 
the love-songs of Petrarch and the amorous tales 
of Boccaccio. The churches were empty, the 
academies and places of festivity were crowded, 
the Sabbath was a day of gayety instead of wor- 
ship, and the life of the people was poisoned 
with the pagan ideas of the revived classics, 
while society was intoxicated with the love of 
pleasure. 

Tormented with the thoughts of the people's 



52 Providential Epochs. 

wickedness, the monk would throw all his en- 
ergies into the work of reforming society. It 
was a task worthy of a great intellect and a 
mighty soul, not to be accomplished by an ig- 
noramus or a fanatic. Florence was given np 
to culture. The streets, the banks, the studios, 
the academies, and the Senate were full of the 
finest geniuses in the world, the best philoso- 
phers, poets, wits, scholars, financiers, and states- 
men. A preacher, too, the city had, of great 
abilities, a master of rhetoric and melodious 
speech, a favorite of Lorenzo, the idol of the 
schoolmen. The learned and noble gathered 
about him, and never wearied of the charm of 
his rolling periods and the rich cadences of his 
musical voice, for Gennazzanno was the prince of 
the Florentine pulpit. 

The first efforts of the reformer in this brill- 
iant capital were a failure. There was neither 
grace nor beauty in him. His manner, like his 
presence, was plain, homely, and angular. He 
spoke with hesitation, and was afflicted with 
some infirmity of utterance. His diction was 
innocent of art and elegance, while quotations 
from classic poets and pagan philosophers found 
no place in his sermons. He preached to empty 
benches; for the multitude were elsewhere hang- 



The Renaissance. 53 

ing on the lips of Gennazzanno, However dis- 
tasteful the unvarnished truth may become to a 
wicked but polite age, )-et the superficial gloss 
and glitter of rhetoric, the sounding brass and 
and clanging cymbal of mere eloquence, seldom 
lose their witchery, and rarely fail to charm the 
thoughtless crowd. 

Savonarola left Florence in disappointment, 
acknowledging with deep chagrin his utter fail- 
ure as' a reformer, although his sorrow grew 
not out of his own personal unpopularity so 
much as out of the unpopularity of the great 
triiths he came to preach. He grieved in dis- 
appointment, not because few came to hear Sa- 
vonarola, and many went to hear Gennazzanno, 
but because few came to hear the teaching of 
David and Isaiah, of John apd of Christ, while 
many went to have their ears tickled with the 
poetical and philosophical felicities of Homer, 
Virgil, Tully, and Plato. Undoubtedly the Re- 
naissance was becoming more pagan than Chris- 
tian in spirit. The very Church was as thor- 
oughly paganized as culture. 

The new preacher returned to Bologna with 
the conviction half formed that preaching was 
not his mission. With his uncouth presence, 
harsh voice, angular, ungraceful manners, and 



54 Providential Epochs. 

impediment of speech, he might easily have per- 
suaded himself that he had not the qualifica- 
tions of a preacher, and that in undertaking such 
a work his zeal had gotten the better of his 
judgment. But no ; with as many natural defi- 
ciencies as originally embarrassed Demosthenes, 
so with as great a determination as the Grecian 
orator displayed, he conquered his infirmities.// 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan broke down and failed 
in his first speech before the British Parliament, 
but with commendable self-appreciation and am- 
bition he exclaimed :'" It is in me, and it shall 
come out." It was in Savonarola ; he knew it, 
and he was resolved it should come out. By a 
year's time the stammering monk was preach- 
ing with a fluency, charm, and force that were 
prophetic of the coming eloquence which was to 
shake Italy,/ and rival in its influence upon the 
multitude the most charming and impetuous 
oratory that ever leaped from the lips of Tully 
or Demosthenes. The awkard, homely, unpol- 
ished, harsh-voiced Savonarola was to be the 
preacher of the Renaissance, while the popu- 
larity of the graceful, scholastic, honey-tongued 
Gennazzanno was to be destroyed forever by the 
thunders, lightnings, and storm of the young 
Dominican's pulpit power. 



The Renaissance. 55 

From the chief cities of Lombardy, where he 
preached after retiring from San Lorenzo in 
Florence, the fame of Savonarola began to spread 
throughout Italy. By the year 1487, at the age 
of thirty-five, every obstruction had been swept 
away, the floodgates lifted, and the rolling tor- 
rents of the reformer's impetuous and resistless 
eloquence had broken forth. Already the lec- 
turer had become a preacher, and the preacher 
a reformer. This new and mighty preacher of 
righteousness had not, during his absence from 
Florence, been adding superficial elegance to his 
manners and methods, nor had he become popu- 
lar by imitating the studied graces and pedantic 
ornaments of the polished Gennazzanno. He 
had never departed from his motto: "Elegance 
in language must give way before simplicity in 
preaching and sound doctrine." He did not 
preach merely to delight the ears of rhetoricians, 
kindle the admiration of philosophers, poets, 
and scholars, nor to win the friendship and pat- 
ronage of the rich and powerful./^/' He spoke 
"right on" in the most vigorous, unrelenting, 
sin-pounding eloquence against the corruptions 
of the Church, the disorders of society, the 
worldliness and sensuality of the people, and the 
general ungodliness of the times. The people 



56 Providential Epochs. 

flocked to hear this new and startling sort of 
preaching, and they soon came to regard Sa- 
vonarola as an inspired prophet. As they list- 
ened they became troubled. Conscience awoke. 
The long-smoldering embers of devout convic- 
tions leaped into flames of new religious zeal, if 
not fanaticism. A new Elijah, a modern Jere- 
miah, an Italian Isaiah, a fifteenth-century John 
the Baptist, had come to condemn sin and exhort 
to repentance, and to preach faith, forgiveness, 
chastity, love, and brotherhood. 

The people were pricked in their hearts ; 
they sighed and wept ; they cried aloud in the 
alarm of deep conviction ; they confessed, hu- 
miliated themselves, turned to prayer and wor- 
ship; and, in the enthusiasm of a new conversion, 
they extolled the power, and even asserted the 
inspiration, of the wonderful preacher/ Learned 
men sat spellbound under the Prate's fiery elo- 
quence, as at a later time Franklin, Hume, Gar- 
rick, and Bolingbroke became enthusiastic ad- 
mirers of the oratorical genius of Whitefield. 
Pi >, the learned and elegant prince of Miran- 
dola, became a zealous convert; and, as the fame 
of Savonarola was spreading over Italy, he per- 
suaded Lorenzo de' Medici to call the preacher 
back to Florence. In 1489, just seven years 



The Renaissance. 57 

after he had left that city in humiliation and 
disappointment, Savonarola once more stood up 
in Florence to preach. St. Mark was thronged 
with eager, expectant listeners, who trembled 
and sobbed, and swayed to and fro like a tem- 
pest-beaten forest. On that memorable day, we 
are told, the prophet's eloquence was terrific. 
All Florence was in excitement. Gennazzanno 
was deserted and forgotten. The academies 
turned from Homer, Plato, and Tully to discuss 
the merits of Savonarola. The learned doctors 
delivered their lectures to empty benches. Pol- 
iticians wore a look of anxiety. Monks, nuns, 
and priests scowled in alarm and rage. The 
people took to much wise nodding, busy talking, 
and discussion among themselves in shop and 
home and public square. There was but one 
theme — " Savonarola." 

The popular career of the reformer in Flor- 
ence had begun. He had gained a hearing. 
The problem of an audience had been solved. 
Empty benches no longer greeted him, but a 
perfect sea of anxious, upturned faces met .jiis 
gaze wherever he stood up to preach. His au- 
diences grew too large for St. Mark, too large 
for the Church of the Annunciata, and too large 
for the great cathedral ; for all Florence poured 

5 



58 Providential Epochs. 

out to hear him, while the thiinder of his elo- 
quence not only made the dome of Brunelleschi 
reverberate, but made Florence and all her pal- 
aces quake, and was yet to startle all Italy, if 
not all Europe. Lorenzo the Magnificent grew 
restive ; politicians became alarmed ; priests and 
bishops looked anxious ; monks and nuns trem- 
bled; and the pope raved in anger as the re- 
former dealt his terrific blows at the ecclesiastical 
abuses of his time, as this friend and champion 
of the people assailed the Medicean despotism, 
and with clarion voice advocated liberty for the 
people and republicanism for the State. Against 
the unbelief, extravagance, darkness, and sensu- 
ality which followed upon the heels of Floren- 
tine prosperity; against the superstitious and 
tyrannical practices of the very dignitaries of 
the Church, but one voice in all Italy was raised. 
One voice, strong and resonant, sounded the 
alarm, and uttered the hot word of condemna- 
tion and warning. It was heard from the con- 
fessional to the Vatican, from the factory to the 
palace, crying: "Woe! woe! woe! Repent, my 
people! repent!" This fearless preacher could 
be tolerated in Florence but three years. He 
became troublesome to the ruling powers, both 
in Church and in State, It was soon evident 



The Renaissance. 59 

that there was not room enough in Florence for 
a Savonarola and a Medici. Though Lorenzo 
was instrumental in bringing the monk to Flor- 
ence, and in securing for him the priorship of 
St. Mark, yet the wily despot could not make a 
political tool out of this independent reformer. 
Savonarola was the friend and champion of the 
people; an uncompromising enemy of tyranny 
and despotism ; a zealous, clarion-voiced advo- 
cate of liberty and republicanism. He had no 
sympathy whatever with the Medici, who, as he 
thought, had robbed the Florentines of their an- 
cient liberties, and riveted upon them the golden 
shackles of a splendid but most absolute despot- 
ism. The reformer, therefore, asked no favors 
of Lorenzo, who was very anxious to heap favors 
upon him. The proud despot paid respectful 
attention to the humble friar's teaching ; was 
frequently at mass; contributed most liberally 
to the support of the convent, and even put 
himself in the friar's way to be solicited for ad- 
vice and benefits. Nevertheless, the preacher 
preserved a haughty and aggravating independ- 
ence. He believed that much of the very cor- 
ruptions of society, many of the vices that then 
poisoned the life-blood of Florentine manners, 
had been introduced by Lorenzo. iVs the Frate 



6o Providential Epochs. 

continued to hurl his thunderbolts of denuncia- 
tion against the social, political, and ecclesias- 
tical evils of the times, Lorenzo began to think 
of curbing the preacher's fury and quenching 
that dangerous enthusiasm which was beginning 
to make despotic politicians and corrupt ecclesi- 
astics most uncomfortably restive. It had galled 
the Magnificent that Savonarola did not call 
upon him and pay him homage on his entrance 
to the priorship of St. Mark, as his predecessors 
had done; and the Medici had not forgotten the 
answer which Savonarola gave to one who sug- 
gested that such homage was his duty. " Do I 
owe this appointment to God, or to Lorenzo de' 
Medici?" asked the indignant prior. "To God, 
undoubtedly," was the reply. " Suffer me, then," 
he rejoined, "to pay homage to God, and not to 
man." But when Lorenzo sent five of the lead- 
ing citizens of Florence to remonstrate with the 
friar, and to admonish him to cease his denun- 
ciations of the Roman Court and of the ruling 
powers in Church and State, the indignant and 
fearless prophet answered them: "Tell him to 
repent of his sins; for the Lord spares no one, 
and has no fear of the princes of the earth." 
And, when threatened with exile, he made the 
significant reply: " I have no fear of your ban- 



The Renaissance: 6i 

ishment, for this city is no more than a grain 
of lentils on the earth; but although I am a 
stranger, and Lorenzo is not only a citizen, but 
the first among them, it is I who will remain, 
and he who shall leave the city." The preacher 
was right. In less than a year Lorenzo the 
Magnificent lay dying at Careggi. In that su- 
preme moment, when the wisdom, wit, and phi- 
losophy of such lifelong companions as Ficino, 
Politian, Mirandola, and Pulci failed to divert his 
mind or give him peace of soul, with an honesty 
which will ever reflect credit upon his character, 
the dying despot cried : " Send to St. Mark 
and call Savonarola ; I know no honest friar but 
him." 

Savonarola hastened to the bedside of his 
dying enemy, to offer the consolations of religion 
and to shrive the despot for eternity. Lorenzo 
was leaving Florence ; Savonarola was still to 
remain. Call it a shrewd guess ; call it a coin- 
cidence, if you will ; that age called it the ful- 
fillment of Savonarola's prophecy. Lorenzo, in 
much distress of mind, was about to make his 
last confession, when the stern friar of St. Mark 
demanded of him three things, viz.: that he have 
faith in Christ; that he make restitution of all 
moneys and properties which he had obtained 



62 Providential Epochs. 

from others unjustly, and that he restore liberty 
to the Florentines. The first two requirements 
Lorenzo assented to ; but when the last request 
fell from the lips of the unyielding priest, the 
expiring despot, rallying his failing energies, 
suddenly turned his face to the wall with silent 
grief and speechless indignation. Without leav- 
ing his priestly benediction, Savonarola turned 
and strode from the room, and, drawing his cowl 
over his burning eyes, sought his humble cell in 
the solemn cloisters of St. Mark. Undoubtedly 
the most reliable authorities accept this (the 
Mirandola) version of the dramatic death-scene. 
These two great men could not understand each 
other. Neither could appreciate the other's 
power, worth, and mission. 

We do not pretend to give any explanation 
of the predictions or prophecies of Savonarola. 
That he predicted the early death of Lorenzo and 
of Pope Innocent VIII, and of the King of Naples, 
is true, and that his prediction was verified is 
also true. That he warned the people of ap- 
proaching evils — such as famine, pestilence, war, 
and subjugation by a foreign foe — is admitted; 
and that these evils were visited upon Italy, and 
especially upon Florence, can not be denied. 
That these evils came to scourge the people for 



The Renaissance. 63 

their sins is a theory which presents impossi- 
bilities and absurdities only to rationalistic un- 
belief. But that Savonarola was divinely in- 
spired to prophesy these events is a proposition 
full of difficulties for any and every school of 
faith except the very one that condemned Sa- 
vonarola, and hung him in the flames. In the 
sermons of the so-called prophet, startling pre- 
dictions of coming calamities followed one upon 
another. And as they were getting themselves 
verified in passing events, the power of the new 
prophet increased. He preached against gam- 
bling and usury, against extravagant fashions 
and all forms of excess, against business dis- 
honesty and political intrigue, so that gamblers 
ceased to ply their trade, usurers conscience- 
smitten began to make restitution of ill-gotten 
wealth, the women laid aside their jewelry and 
gaudy dress and assumed modest attire, and shops 
were closed on Sunday and during preaching. 
The people delighted in listening to the once 
uncouth and stammering Savonarola as he now 
stood up in the pulpit of Florence, and poured 
forth such majestic eloquence as has found no 
parallel in modern oratory. Not the enthusiasm 
of a St. Bernard, not the vigor and dauntless 
fury of a Knox, not the magnetic eloquence of 



64 Providential Epochs. 

the learned and impetuous Chalmers, not Mas- 
sillon's pomp and grace, not the rolling periods 
of the princely Bossuet, not Whitefield's thrill- 
ing pathos, nor the startling thunders of Ed- 
wards's declamation, ever rose to that majestic 
power and almost superhuman grandeur which 
characterized the impetuous eloquence of Sa- 
vonarola. His great eyes flashed as with the fire 
of the lightnings; his homely features became 
radiant as an angel's ; his gestures, full of anima- 
tion, gave weighty emphasis to the words which 
he uttered, and startling vividness to the pic- 
ture of his glowing imagination ; his voice shook 
the temple with its sonorous power, and thrilled 
the listening multitude with the alarm of terri- 
ble convictions. Enthusiastic listeners beheld 
angels hovering over him while he preached. 
People sobbed, and wailed, and cried aloud with 
consternation and heart-breaking repentance, as 
he imcovered their sins, uttered his predictions, 
explained the Word of God, and exhorted them, 
with tears rolling down his cheeks, to repent and 
believe, to turn from their evil ways to ways of 
virtue, love, and peace. 

The notion must not be entertained that Sa- 
vonarola was a mere ignorant and unthinking 
enthusiast. Perhaps his superior in intellectual 



The Renaissance. 65 

force could not have been found among his ec- 
clesiastical contemporaries. Not in the Platonic 
Academy, not in learned Florence, not in all re- 
viving Italy, could there have been found a more 
original, acute, and philosophical mind. No 
scholar could boast of more learning. The sub- 
tilties and beauties of Aristotle and Plato were 
not more familiar to Ficino and Politian than to 
Savonarola. He was a natural-born orator as 
truly as was Demosthenes, notwithstanding his 
original infirmities. It may be doubted, more- 
over, whether Italy or the whole world then pos- 
sessed a profounder theologian, a more zealous 
student, or a more masterly expounder of the 
Word of God. Every verse of Holy Writ was 
on his tongue, and it is said that he committed 
the Bible to memory. An essentially great and 
mighty man was this Savonarola. In many re- 
spects we must rank him above Loyola, Huss, 
or Knox. He possessed the spirit of an Elijah 
or a Jeremiah. 

The power of the Medici began to decline 
with the death of the Magnificent, and that illus- 
trious family of despots came to recognize Sa- 
vonarola as the most potent and irresistible agent 
in the subversion of their influence and author- 
ity. It was a sad and humiliating transition, to 



66 Providential Epochs. 

the minds of the proud Florentines, from the 
Magnificent Lorenzo to his son, the pusillani- 
mous Piero. And the people deplored the rise of 
this profligate prince the more because they 
were compelled to see their prophet and the 
fearless champion of their liberties leave Florence 
at the command of this ignominious despot. 

Innocent VIII died the same year with Lo- 
renzo, and he was succeeded by the most de- 
testable, profligate, inhuman wretch that ever 
wore the oft-polluted triple-crown — Alexander 
VI, a name which it is almost obscenity to men- 
tion; as black a name as stains the annals of 
history. This is the third pope with whom Sa- 
vonarola has had to deal. And three more 
bestial, villainous, abhorrent creatures could not 
be found aside from Nero, Caligula, and Tiberius, 
of Imperial Rome. What Roscoe said of Alex- 
ander VI might justly be observed of every pope 
in Savonarola's time : he was " the scourge of 
Christendom and the opprobrium of the human 
race." 

'• With great power and fearlessness Savon- 
arola preached against spiritual wickedness in 
high places, against the worship of the Vir- 
gin Mary, the efficacy of charms and relics,,' and 
the substitution of Aristotle, Plato, and Tully, 



The Renaissance. 67 

for the pure and simple gospel of the Son of God. 
The preacher, however, was not always pouring 
forth words of wrath and condemnation. Often 
his stern soul relaxed into pathos, and again 
soared aloft on the eagle wings of ecstasy. The 
voice of thunder would become as soft as a lute- 
note or the mellow tone of a golden bell, while 
the severe face would at times grow radiant with 
the majesty and glory of his exalted imagina- 
tion ; then would he hold multitudes entranced 
with strains of almost celestial eloquence. 

No sermon of Savonarola created more ex- 
citement and consternation among all classes 
than that which he preached in the cathedral of 
Florence, January 13, 1494, on "The Reform of 
the Church." In it he said: "When Pope In- 
nocent VIII died, I was laughed at for saying 
that the Church must be reformed. At that 
time I beheld a vision — a black cross suspended 
over Babylonian Rome. On that cross was in- 
scribed, 'The wrath of the Lord.' Swords, dag- 
gers, lances, arms of all sorts, gleamed around 
it, mingled with hail, with devouring lightning, 
and thunderbolts, all enveloped in the lurid ob- 
scurity of a dark and horrible tempest. I saw 
also another cross ; it was of gold, and reached 
from earth to heaven. It hovered about Jerusa- 



68 Providential Epochs. 

lem, and on it was inscribed, ' The mercy of 
God.' A serene, limpid, and pure atmosphere 
surrounded it. Hence I gather that a reform of 
the Church is at hand. O Florence, this super- 
natural light has not been vouchsafed me for 
any merit of my own, but for your sake ; so that, 
when the scourge descends, it may not be in 
your power to plead ignorance ! O Italy ! O 
Prince of Italy! and you, prelates of the Church, 
the wrath of God impends over you, and repent- 
ance is the sole remedy ! Repent, then, while 
the sword still remains undrawn ; repent before 
it leaps from its scabbard and becomes dyed in 
blood." The impression of this sermon had not 
been effaced before the news came that the 
French were pouring over the Alps, and that 
Charles VIII was sweeping down upon Florence 
and Italy for the purpose of conquest. The 
sword had leaped from its scabbard ; the daggers 
were falling ; alarm and consternation had seized 
the people. All Florence surged toward the ca- 
thedral. With paled lips they spoke but the one 
name — "Savonarola." Standing up in his pul- 
pit before the agitated mass, the prophet cried : 
"And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters 
upon the earth !" His voice reverberated through 
the temple, and smote the ears of Florence with 



The Renaissance. 6g 

terror. The reporters could not take down the 
mighty words of the preacher, so overcome were 
they by his tempestuous declamation. -^People 
affirmed — and among them were such scholars 
and philosophers as Pico and Politian — that cold 
chills struck them ; the very hairs of their head 
stood on end ; they wept and trembled as, like a 
mountain torrent bursting every barrier, the elo- 
quence of the preacher swept everything before 
him. In the estimation of the people, Savon- 
arola never before seemed so great. He had 
predicted the evils that came upon them ; he 
knew their cause ; he could name the remedy. 
He was their father, their prophet, their deliv- 
erer. The weak and cowardly Piero having for- 
saken the people in their hour of danger, all 
eyes were now fixed upon Savonarola. The wise 
men of the Senate saw that he was the leader 
for the emergency. Suddenly the Frate found 
himself the chosen head of the Republic. The 
destiny of Florence was in his keeping. Charles 
Vni treated with the Florentines and passed on, 
overawed by the prophet, who gave the con- 
queror advice which he was wise or superstitious 
enough to heed// The reformer was looked to 
for the formation of a new government. Here 
was the beginning of his greatest troubles, and 



70 Providential Epochs. 

certainly of his greatest mistakes. Here, if any- 
where, he was carried by his enthusiasm, and by 
a strange combination of circumstances, to over- 
step the boundaries of his highest and noblest 
mission; and here began the series of acts by 
which his final execution has by some been jus- 
tified. That Savonarola possessed the genius of 
a great statesmanship, may not be questioned ; 
and that he suggested many useful and success- 
ful laws and institutions, is true. That his po- 
litical eminence belongs to his just fame ; that 
he took a conspicuous part in settling political 
measures that are worthy to be ranked among 
the greatest reforms ever achieved by a states- 
man ; and that, in the language of Villari, " he 
is justly entitled to be reckoned among the great 
founders of the Republic," no one that has stud- 
ied his political career will dispute. But at the 
same time there can be no doubt that, as a 
whole, his scheme of government was Utopian — 
better fitted for the millennium than for the 
fifteenth century. Savonarola's government was 
neither a pure democracy nor a republic. It was 
a theocracy, or rather a Christocracy ; for from 
the pulpit the Frate cried: "Florence, Jesus 
Christ, who is King of the universe, hath willed 
to become thy King in particular. Wilt thou 



The Renaissance. 71 

have liiin for thy King?" And the people, in a 
frenzy of excitement, answered with a mighty 
shout of assent. This has the appearance of out- 
and-out fanaticism. We have no disposition to 
give it a milder name. After this it is easily 
seen how the preacher was the political ruler of 
Florence. He was the prophet of God to a peo- 
ple easily carried away by any fanatical notions 
of liberty or religion. He was in an anomalous 
position. His office was no more than a vice- 
gerency. But in this position and self-assumed 
office Savonarola held the reins of power, at 
least for a short time, with a firm grip. His 
preaching had transformed the social manners 
and religious life of Florence. The churches 
were filled with large and devout congregations ; 
the people turned to their long-neglected Bibles ; 
alms-giving became universal. It was no un- 
common occurrence, in those strange, abnormal 
days, for men to restore ill-gotten gains ; for 
women to throw their jewels into the contribu- 
tion for the poor ; and for some of the noblest, 
most promising young men to turn their backs 
upon the world and enter the monastic life, 
which Savonarola had invested with a peculiar 
charm and fascination. Modern history can not 
duplicate, in phenomenal character, the short 



72 Providential Epochs. 

epoch of Savonarola's political supremacy in 
Florence. Short-sighted men, carried away with 
enthusiasm, taking a superficial and narrow view 
of affairs, vainly imagined that the ideal govern- 
ment had been established, and that the millen- 
nium was near at hand. But those capricious 
and combustible Florentines were not the ele- 
ments out of which the millennial society or the 
ideal government could be constituted. Divis- 
ions soon occurred. The city was divided into 
numerous factions. Savonarola finally found his 
measures questioned, his wisdom challenged, his 
authority denied, and himself denounced. There 
were not wanting men who regarded him as a 
hypocrite and a demagogue. He was accused of 
using his ecclesiastical position and his religious 
influence to grasp political power and to satisfy 
a daring and unbridled ambition. 

That liberty and equality had been secured to 
the Florentines, and that the Government was 
never more scientifically democratic is true, but 
there were noble and aristocratic families in that 
old Florence who did not believe in liberty for 
the other man. They did not relish democracy 
nor Christianity. They organized themselves 
into a political party to overthrow Savonarola. 
There was also an opposite party formed, not 



The Renaissance. 73 

unlike the Communists of to-day ; its adherents 
looked upon Savonarola's democracy as too con- 
servative and temperate. Thus the preacher- 
politician found himself between two fires. But 
turning toward Rome he discovered a third 
enemy directing his revenge against him. The 
prophet was soon completely surrounded by un- 
compromising foes. L<oud mutterings were heard 
on every side. There came at last outspoken 
objections to the Prate's interference in political 
matters. He was called a disturber of the peace 
of Florence. At this stage in the progress of 
affairs, an enemy of Savonarola and a hater of 
popular government was elected standard-bearer 
or mayor of Florence. No time was lost in 
making the impression that Savonarola was a cre- 
ator of sedition, an enemy of law and order, an 
unmitigated pretender and traitor, to be dealt with 
in a summary manner. When the pope was 
requested to put a stop to the Frate's preaching, 
he was only too ready to comply. Complaints 
had come from priests, bishops, and cardinals, 
who had been scourged by the exposures and 
bitter denunciation of Savonarola. Nor had the 
court at Rome itself been spared ; even the pope 
had been made to wince under the lash of the 
fearless reformer. With a sinister purpose, but 



74 Providential Epochs. 

with oily words and hypocritical blandishments, 
' the pope invited Savonarola to Rome. Fortu- 
nately the preacher was not able to go. Then 
came a brief, forbidding him to preach. But 
this was no greater an affliction to Savonarola 
than to thousands of his friends, who interceded 
for him, and assured the pope of the edifying 
character of his preaching. Then — ah, subtle 
trick of cunning Rome ! — Savonarola was offered 
a cardinal's hat if he would change his style of 
preaching. He spurned the offer and longed 
only for the hat that should be red with the 
blood of holy martyrdom. The pope was furi- 
ous, beside himself with rage, breathing out 
threatenings and slaughter. Savonarola was 
now on the defensive. Here was the purest, 
most serious, and conscientious man that Italy 
had seen since Dante, in open and notorious an- 
tagonism with the most depraved monster that 
had wielded the power in Rome since the bloody 
reign of Nero. Savonarola in a death-grapple 
with Alexander Borgia! ' 

The people are obedient to the extremest de- 
mands of the preacher. He is threatened with 
the vengeance of both the ecclesiastical power 
of Rome and the political parties of Florence. 
As we have seen, his enemies attempted to bribe 



The Renaissance. 75 

him into silence, but in vain. His power with 
the people increased. He predicted war, and it 
came; famine, and it appeared; plague, and it 
stalked abroad. Yet he alone averted the sword 
of the conqueror Charles VHI, and warned the 
invader from the city. Now he goes about feed- 
ing the hungry and visiting the sick in time of 
famine and pestilence. He comes to be re- 
garded as greater than priest or pope or king, 
and the people look upon him as the head of the 
Florentine Government. A theocracy is at- 
temped, and Jesus Christ is chosen King of Flor- 
ence, with Savonarola as diis prophet. Relig- 
ious festivals are inaugurated. Bonfires blaze in 
the public squares in honor of Christ. Wild 
dancing and singing are indulged. Thousands 
of children, bearing red crosses adorned with 
flowers, march the streets, singing praises to God 
and begging alms. All this wild religious feel- 
ing finds a climax in the memorable event of the 
" burning of the vanities." A pyramid sixty 
feet high is built of all those things which, as 
Savonarola had taught the people, are offensive 
to God. Thousands upon thousands of articles 
are brought by all classes, and thrown upon the 
pile which is destined to the flame. The masks, 
wigs, and dresses used in the pagan carnivals; 



76 Providential Epochs. 

cards, dice, and all the paraphernalia of the gam- 
bling vice; the paints, cosmetics, and false 
adornments of worldly women ; indecent books, 
such as Boccaccio and some of the ancient poets 
which have become very popular in the nun- 
neries; and indelicate paintings, which are bet- 
ter fitted for the flames than for palace or con- 
vent walls; and all such vanities compose the 
pyramid. For this collection a shrewd Venetian 
has the business enterprise to offer a good round 
sum; but he is rewarded for his audacity by hav- 
ing his own portrait placed on top of the pyra- 
mid, which is now lighted by torches and con- 
sumed to ashes amid the ringing of bells and 
the wildest, most extravagant demonstrations of 
shouting, singing, and dancing. Though we 
have no disposition to call fanaticism by a 
milder term, yet while many have accused Savon- 
arola of wanton vandalism in the fanatical de- 
struction of valuable works of literature and art, 
and brand him as the enemy of the revival of 
learning, we find strong arguments in his de- 
fense. To assume that Savonarola was an 
enemy of literature and art, and was inimical 
to the Renaissance movement, is to place too 
great a value upon the articles condemned to 
the flames in that hour of enthusiasm. The 



The Renaissance. 77 

burning of the "vanities" simply demonstrated 
Savonarola's hatred of the shams, vanities, and 
baubles that were deceiving and» corrupting the 
people. That remarkable event but proved Sa- 
vonarola's remarkable detestation of all sensual, 
indecent, vitiating art and literature, and hence 
his appreciation of all that was pure, good, and 
refining. It is not too much to affirm of Savon- 
arola's influence on the art of the later Renais- 
sance — its better, grander period — that he gave to 
it its pure moral character, and rescued it from 
the degeneration and indecency of paganism. 
Bartolomeo and Lorenzo de Credi cast many 
a picture into those virtuous flames because 
they became convinced that such works were 
unworthy the consecrated pencil of Christian 
artists and unworthy the scrutiny of Christian 
eyes. Robbia the sculptor, Crenaca the famous 
arc itect, and Botticelli the painter were the dis- 
ciples of the reformer, and in their great works 
these men showed the influence of his teaching. 
But we may associate Savonarola with a greater 
genius than any of these, and through that ge- 
nius associate him with the Renaissance in all 
its glory; for Michael Angelo was a devoted ad- 
mirer of Savonarola, of his character, his preach- 
ing, his writings, and his life. As in his blind 



78 Providential Epochs. 

old age the famous sculptor would find his way 
to the famous Torso of the Belvidere, and ten- 
derly pass his fingers over the marvelous form 
which he claimed as his lifelong teacher in the 
plastic art, so, in his declining years, he sought 
consolation and strength from the writings of 
the good martyr monk who had been his spirit- 
ual teacher fro.u his youth. The same principles 
which made Angelo a good and great-souled 
man prompted him to dedicate his extraordinary 
genius to the glory of Christianity. Who had 
a greater influence on art than Angelo? Who 
had a greater influence on Angelo than Savon- 
arola? Now it is our argument that the 
preacher who inspired the pencils or chisels of 
Credi, Bartolomeo, Robbia, Crenaca, Botticelli, 
and Michael Angelo with a pious purpose and 
with religious themes, gave character to the no- 
blest art of the Renaissance. 

It has been charged that Savonarola was an 
enemy of the revival of learning, and a fanat- 
ical, ruthless destroyer of valuable literary 
treasures. It is ignorantly supposed that he 
consigned to the flames precious manuscripts 
and books of fabulous value which had been 
rescued from oblivion and deposited in libraries, 
and that this fanatical monk robbed succeeding 



The Renaissance. 79 

generations of priceless literary treasures, and 
therein exhibited his own hatred of learning, 
culture, and progress. But this is not true. It 
was through his influence alone that Saint 
Mark secured, at a large price, the famous Medi- 
cean Library, which contained the most precious 
literary works, the rarest Greek and Latin manu- 
scripts to be found in Europe. Had it not been 
for Savonarola, that splendid collection which 
was the pride of learned Florence would have 
been scattered as leaves before a gale. If 
Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici are to be ad- 
mired for their taste and liberality in collecting 
so magnificent a library, then Savonarola, with 
all his hatred of Boccaccio and the unchaste 
classics, must be praised by the true friends of 
culture and learning for his wisdom in preserv- 
ing the literary treasures which the Medici had 
collected. In justice, ^it must also be admitted 
that Savonarola's poems and sermons had an 
influence upon the literary minds of the age; 
they were no small part of the best literature of 
the revival. 

As the enthusiastic monk continued to ful- 
minate his charges against the corrupt digni- 
taries of Church and State, x\lexander VI finally 
hurled at him the bull of excommunication. 



8o Providential Epochs. 

This was followed by the excommunication of 
Savonarola's followers. From that hour the 
preacher's popularity began to decline, and 
clouds big with wrath, and muttering with the 
thunders of vengeance, began to gather about 
his devoted head. All this Savonarola had pre- 
dicted. 

It can not reasonably be supposed that Sa- 
vonarola was responsible for the fanatical folly 
of the '* Ordeal by Fire." His enthusiastic dis- 
ciple, Domenico, led the reformer into that la- 
mentable blunder, although it may even more 
reasonably be affirmed that the zealous fol- 
lower had unwittingly led his master into a 
trap which had cunningly been set for him by 
his enemies. The prophet's refusal to enter 
the flames severed the last tie of confidence that 
bound the people to him. From that moment 
he was the most bitterly-hated man in Florence, 
and his doom was sealed. The trial which 
ended in his conviction and sentence to death 
will forever remain as a stain upon the es- 
cutcheon of Florence. It was diabolically un- 
just. Judges were appointed for this trial who 
had been the open and avowed enemies of the 
accused. Condemnation had already been de- 
cided upon before the farcical trial began. Yet 



The Renaissance. 8i 

the examination of the accused prophet was 
unsatisfactory. His enemies could extort from 
him no confession, could beguile him of no 
utterance upon which to hang the shadow of a 
conviction ; but the rope, whip, thumb-screw, 
and fire were at the disposal of Florentine and 
papal justice to extort unguarded expressions 
and confessions from the lips of suspected and 
accused persons. The delicate, nervous, and 
wearied frame of Savonarola was put to torture. 
His muscles were torn, his flesh lacerated, his 
joints dislocated, his feet blistered with coals o' 
fire, to extort from him a confession that might 
justify his condemnation and execution. De- 
lirious with the exquisite torture which Roman 
Catholic cruelty a^nd Florentine diabolism had in- 
vented and applied, the poor sufferer uttered many 
wild, incoherent sentences which his tormentors, 
in the name of justice, tortured into confessions 
of guilt. But whenever the lacerated martyr 
was relieved for a season and regained his 
senses, he would throw himself on his knees 
and ask pardon of God, if during his pain and 
delirium he had proven false to the truth ; and 
on his quivering knees he prayed that God 
would also forgive his tormentors. 

On one subject Savonarola was never fully 



82 Providential Epochs. 

persuaded. At times lie seemed to affirm, and 
at others to deny, that he was an inspired 
prophet. He had uttered many remarkable pre- 
dictions which had, even to the knowledge of 
his enemies, been verified in their history. But 
whether these predictions were merely the 
shrewd forecastings of a wise and far-seeing 
mind, or were the results of a supernatural il- 
lumination, seemed to be to his mind, as it has 
been to many minds, a question. Therefore, 
when he came to the trial, which he knew 
would end in his martyrdom, he displayed an 
uncertainty of conviction which was proof to 
his enemies of his guilt and of the hypocrisy 
of all his pretensions. On all questions of 
doctrine and of ecclesiastical polity he was im- 
pregnable. On all questions of patriotism, loy- 
alty to liberty and the people, he was superior 
to every test. But when put to the torture 
which subjected him to the most excruciating 
agony, in wild, incoherent sentences, lie ap- 
peared to deny, at least not to affirm, his divine 
inspiration. Yet, with all their tricks, all their 
threats, insults, and fiendish tortures, they 
would at last throw the poor, bleeding, quiver- 
ing, and senseless Savonarola into his cell, with 
rage and disappointment that he had not said 



The Renaissance. 83 

something in" all his raving pain that would jus- 
tify even their blunted consciences in convicting 
him. Again and again was Savonarola put to 
the torture, and yet the brave soul never 
thought of compromising the truth or proving 
disloyal to the cause of liberty and righteous- 
ness. Days and weeks went by, and new 
schemes were hatching in the viper's nest of 
Florentine justice. There were other methods 
which the people that had been taught by 
Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, and Alexander VI, 
knew well how to use ; and the dignified 
Senate of that foremost city of the world 
chuckled with demoniacal delight when a 
Florentine notary, Ceccone, with a fiendish 
smile, suggested that, where no cause for con- 
viction existed, they must make one, and pro- 
posed for four hundred ducats to invent a case 
against Savonarola. He took it upon himself 
to alter the answers which fell from the quiver- 
ing lips of the prophet while questions were 
put to him under torture ; and words were 
changed, sentences altered and omitted, or in- 
serted to suit the purpose. Thus a most dam- 
aging case was made out against the accused. 
Three trials and three series of torture were in- 
flicted through a period of forty days. The 



84 Providential Epochs. 

last trial was conducted and the last tortures 
were applied by the pope's own commissioners, 
sent from Rome for the purpose, with the con- 
viction and sentence already prepared and in 
their possession. As they entered Florence and 
heard on all sides the cry, " Death, death to 
the friar!" one answered, with a smile: "Die 
he shall, at all events. We shall make a la- 
mous blaze. I have the sentence already pre- 
pared." This was one of Savonarola's judges, 
who shortly after was made a cardinal. 

Savonarola was, of course, convicted, and 
condemned to death// and with him his two 
most zealous followers, Fra Domenico and Fra 
Salvestro, who had been granted as just and 
righteous an examination as papal and Floren- 
tine law had given their master. 

Preparations were speedily made for the exe- 
cution of the reformer and his two devoted 
followers. It was the 23d of May, 1498. 
Scaflfolds had been erected, and materials for 
the fire gathered about them ; for the martyrs 
were to be hanged and burned. Florence 
turned out en masse to witness the execution. 
The historic square which had been the scene 
of many tragic events was crowded with a vast, 
seething mob, which hooted and cursed and 




EXECUTION OF SAVONAROLA. 



The Renaissance. 85 

stoned the condemned friars as they were led 
forth to die ; but, with firm step and serene 
face, with words of advice, forgiveness, and 
farewell, each proceeded to the fatal spot of ex- 
ecntion. They were first degraded from their 
sacred office by being stripped of their priestly 
gowns, which were to them more precious in- 
signia than the gold and purple robes of kings. 
The pope had appointed a friend and disciple of 
the reformer to pronounce his degradation/ But 
when, with faltering voice and trembling frame, 
the good Bishop of Vasona forgot the usual 
formula, and in his agitation said, "I separate 
you from the Church militant and triumphant," 
Savonarola, with the utmost composure, a strange 
light suffusing his remarkable countenance, cor- 
rected the bishop, and replied: "From the 
Church militant, not from the Church tri- 
umphant." 

His disciples were first executed, and they 
went to their death like the martyrs of old. 
Savonarola then, with a fearless mien, but with 
a gentle, forgiying look — an expression of love 
and sorrow for his people — mounted the ladder 
to the chain and rope. ' "In what state of mind 
do you endure this martyrdom?" asked a 
friendly priest at the last moment. " The 



86 Providential Epochs. 

lyord has suffered as much for me," were the 
great last words of Savonarola. The body swung 
out, the flames leaped up; but a gust of wind 
carried them away from the swaying body. 
"A miracle, a miracle!" was the cry; but the 
next moment the body was wrapped in flames. 
A wild shout from the frenzied multitude made 
Florence tremble, and Savonarola was numbered 
with the world's great martyrs to a gospel of 
righteousness, liberty, and love. 

Though the body of the reformer was stoned 
as it hung there, swinging in the flames, and 
though his ashes were thrown into the yellow 
Arno, yet, for years and centuries after, the morn- 
ing of every 23d of May found beautiful flowers 
in great profusion scattered on the consecrated 
spot where Savonarola gave back his soul to 
God. And now, Florence of United Italy, disen- 
thralled from papal tyranny and despotic rule, 
remembers with gratitude that champion of 
liberty and union, that preacher of righteous- 
ness and love, and erects with pride, in this 
nineteenth century, a statue of Savonarola. 
Wonderful city — city of flowers, city of tu- 
mults ! — Florence the penitent, Florence the 
beautiful ! — thy history from far-off Caesar's days 
has been wrought of a mingled yarn, good and 



The Renaissance. 87 

ill together, sad and joyful, dark and splendid, 
mean and great. Thy hands are bright with 
jewels, yet foully stained with blood. Thy 
brow wears scars of woe and diadems of pride. 
Thy wine with tears has oft been mingled ; 
thy songs, with lamentations. Mighty thy sons 
have been as any that have trod the highway of 
these modern years. Amid thy sobs and thy 
songs, amid thy tears and thy laughter, amid thy 
fights and thy festivals, thou hast cradled great- 
ness and nursed geniuses immortal; for are not 
Dante, Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Ghiberti 
all thy sons? Are not Masaccio, Buonarotti, 
and Da Vinci thy offspring? Did not the noble 
Cosmo and* " The Magnificent" spring from 
thy loins? Do not the names of Boccaccio, 
Ficino, Politian, Bembo, Amerigo Vespucci, 
Galileo, and the good Savonarola shine with 
the splendor of their undying fame in the crown 
of thy queenly greatness? But why, O blind 
and hard of heart, why didst thou let Masaccio 
starve amid thy splendid palaces? Why didst 
thou drive sweet Dante an exile from thy gates, 
to find a home and grave with kinder strangers ? 
Why turns the mighty Leonardo from thy cold 
unfriendliness to seek appreciation from Milan's 
despots, and die a stranger on the royal lap of 



88 Providential Epochs. 

France, rather than an honored son in the 
mother arms of Italy ? And why, fair Florence, 
dost thou stone the prophets that are sent to 
thee, and burn, amid the insults and execrations 
of thy populace, the most righteous man that 
ever graced thy history, the most Demosthenean 
orator that ever shook thy temples with the 
thunders of his sacred eloquence ? 

Thy prophet, thy preacher, the champion of 
thy peace and liberties, was no impostor, hypo- 
crite, and charlatan, to merit thy maledictions 
and the cruel tortures of thy prison, scaffold, 
and flames. Since Dante fled in sorrow from 
thy gates, a whiter soul, a stronger intellect, a 
greater heart, a more eloquent tongue, a con- 
science more sincere, had not adorned thy his- 
tory. Whatever faults of education, supersti- 
tions in belief, mistakes in judgment, and 
extravagances of zeal he may be justly charged 
withal, yet a truer, more genuine, sincere, and 
godly man has never added a holy pride and 
greatness to the name of Florence or Italy. 

He whose boyish heart was full of religious 
devotion, and turned to prayer when others 
turned to vice ; he who strolled alone through 
the groves and fields, and wept for Italy and 
mourned o'er Zion's shame: he for whom the 



The Renaissaace. 89 

world and all its pleasures, all its splendors, 
had no charm ; he who knelt for hours at a time 
upon the altar stair, and gave it a holier conse- 
cration by the baptism of his tears; he who felt 
himself driven out upon the troubled, dangerous 
sea of his strange career by the very breath of 
God, — never came to thee but to serve thee and 
to save thee. He came to tliee with the gospel 
of sweet charity and peace; he smote oppres- 
sion, sin, and wickedness; he never feared the 
face of man, nor courted the favor of the power- 
ful; he stood as a shield of defense between the 
people and the strong arm of the conquerors; 
he fed the poor, visited the sick, comforted the 
dying, and consoled the bereaved, while plague 
and pestilence stalked abroad ; he fell upon his 
knees, while his lacerated body still quivered 
with the agony of the cruel torture, and prayed, 
" Father, forgive them ; they know not what they 
do;" he bade his friends lay down their arms, 
and not to shed a drop of human blood in his 
defense; he walked without a tremor to the 
scaffold and to the flames; he could truthfully 
hold up that sacred habit of his Order, of which 
he had been stripped, and say, "To this day I 
have kept thee spotless;" he gave his life to 
seal his words and work, and perished saying, 

7 



90 Providential Epochs. 

"The Lord has suffered as much for me." That 
man was no false prophet, no hypocrite, no am- 
bitious impostor, but the most sincere, righteous, 
sin-hating, truth-loving. God-fearing spirit of 
his age ; a preacher, unparalleled in modern 
eloquence; a reformer, dauntless as an Elijah, 
a Luther, or a John Knox; a martyr, as sublime 
in his devotion as a Stephen, a Huss, or a Cran- 
mer. Florence has begged and sued for the 
ashes of her exiled Dante; for he sleeps among 
strangers, while his own penitent Florence longs 
in vain to build for him a tomb full worthy of his 
fame and greatness. And Florence would gather, 
too, the ashes of her greatest preacher beneath 
the monumental marble; but, alas! she hurled 
them into the Arno in her fury; the Arno swept 
them into the sea, and the sea around the world. 
But while no massive monument of brass or 
stone hides the holy dust of the great preacher 
and reformer, yet to-day just Fame is cutting 
into the white foundation-stone of Italian unity 
and freedom the name "Savonarola." 

As a reformer, Savonarola's work was almost 
fruitless in any good, abiding, local results. 
There was no radical or permanent reform of 
the Church effected. We must ever keep in 
mind that the would-be reformer was a Roman 



The Renaissance. 91 

Catholic; that he held to the faith of that 
Church with an unfaltering loyalty. The no- 
tion of reforming the creed or the polity of the 
Church had never possessed his mind. He re- 
volted against the abuses that had insinuated 
themselves into the ecclesiastical system, and 
cried most earnestly for a reform in morals, and 
a revival of piety in the souls of all true Cath- 
olics, from the wicked pope to the wicked peo- 
ple ; but a departure from the old faith, a se- 
cession from the Catholic communion, a cutting 
loose even from the traditions and many of the 
vain superstitions of the Church, he never con- 
templated. He would reform the Church from 
within, and that, not by adopting a new and 
advanced creed or polity, but by returning with 
the old creed and the old polity to the ancient 
simplicity, devotion, and virtue. In this he 
failed. Nevertheless, Savonarola broke the spell 
of Dark-Age moral indifference — he woke the 
people's conscience. ' His work started a spirit- 
ual reaction from the corruptions of Rome. He 
prepared the way for another. Though the 
purest and most heroic spirit since Dante, he, 
like the melancholy singer, appealed to callous 
ears. He pleaded, as Dante had done, for liberty 
and right. But as Florence banished her great- 



92 Providential Epochs. 

est poet, so did she barbarously burn her great- 
est preacher. 

It can not be denied that a vein of fanaticism 
runs through Savonarola's life-work. He was 
doubtless conscious of his fanatical tendencies, 
and at times he seemed to contend against him- 
self, and succeeded in holding those tendencies 
in check. But in the lamentable affair of the 
ordeal by fire, into which he permitted his en- 
thusiastic disciple Fra Domenico to lead him, 
Savonarola lost that mastering judgment essen- 
tial to the successful reformer. It must be said, 
however, that he maintained his purity, devo- 
tion, and sincerity to the last. His death was 
a martyrdom. Savonarola's name must stand 
for everything chaste, devout, unworldly, and 
truth-loving in character; everything noble, de- 
termined, patriotic, and righteous in the highest 
effort, if not in the most successful achievement. 

There was a logic in the mission of Savon- 
arola, a logic that became necessary to the argu- 
ment underlying the Reformation. In that 
heroic mission it had been proved that the 
Church could not be reformed froui within. A 
Protestantism was needed to save Christianity 
to the world. Savonarola was not a Protestant; 
he was not a seceder like Luther. He was the 



The Renaissance. 93 

forerunner of Luther, and his very failure proved 
that a Luther was needed as the champion of 
a religious reformation and of Christian prog- 
ress. In this work, all unconsciously perhaps, 
Savonarola prepared the way for Protestantism. 
It is well known that Savonarola's character, 
work, and writings had an influence on the 
mind and destiny of Luther, and that thus he 
became one of the foremost pioneers of the 
Reformation. Looking into the future, we are 
able to see the on-working of forces set in mo- 
tion by these two antagonistic spirits of the 
Renaissance, Lorenzo and Savonarola. There 
was to be another meeting and conflict between 
the influences which these men had created. 
The spirit of Lorenzo survived in his son — 
Leo X — and the spirit of Savonarola survived 
in Martin Luther, a profound admirer of the 
martyr. Luther was to win the battle which 
Savonarola began, and in which he fell. The 
paganism of culture and the paganism of the 
Church were united under the pontificate of 
Leo de' Medici, and against both the paganism 
of culture and the paganism of Christianity the 
Reformation was a protest. A pure culture and 
a pure Christianity, for which Savonarola con- 
tended and to which he was a martyr, were se- 



94 Providential Epochs. 

cured and restored in Protestantism. If not in 
name, yet certainly in spirit, Savonarola, like 
Dante, Wyclif, and Luther, was a Protestant. 

Michael Angelo Buonarotti was born on a 
mountain, significant of his rugged strength of 
character and towering superiority of genius. 
He was a Tuscan, and thus proud compatriot 
of Raphael, Petrarch, and Dante. When he 
came, in 1475, the Renaissance was nearing its 
noonday splendor. Though this supreme man 
was wont to boast that in his veins ran the 
blood of the Counts of Canossa and of Charle- 
magne, his parents were in humble circum- 
stances at the time of his birth. This great 
name must therefore be placed among the many 
that have adorned the "annals of the poor." 
And what a splendid list of names it is — names 
of the sons of honest poverty! Homer, Virgil, 
Chaucer, Luther, Columbus, Newton, Rem- 
brandt, Molieie, and Shakespeare also sprang 
from obscurity. 

Like Savonarola and Lorenzo de' Medici, 
St. Augustine, Napoleon, and Washington, 
Michael Angelo doubtless inherited his strength 
of character, if not his genius, from his mother. 
His father was an obscure stonemason, who 



The Renaissance. 95 

could not appreciate the artistic inclinations 
and endeavorings of Michael, but thought him 
a very visionary fellow when he displayed no 
predilection for the honest trade of a stone- 
mason, but aspired to be an artist. 

Angelo entered a world of artistic beauty as 
it was approaching its zenith glory — a glory 
which was to culminate in the immortal great- 
ness of his own achievements. At the age of 
thirteen he was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio, the 
foremost painter of Florence. ' There he at once 
astonished his masters with his precocity. At 
fourteen he was recommended as a pupil in the 
school of sculpture founded by the Medici. He 
soon became the favorite of Lorenzo the Mag- 
nificent, and was admitted to the company of 
poets and philosophers who composed the Pla- 
tonic Academy, and graced the brilliant banquets 
given in the palace of the Medici. 

Angelo's early masters found in him a pupil 
whose genius seemed superior to education. 
They could teach him little or nothing. He 
surprised them, and even aroused their jealousy, 
by his first performances. He seemed to have 
come into the world already instructed, as if 
having been taught by masters in another world. 
As his first nurse was a stonecutter's wife, he 



96 Providential Epochs. 

claimed that he had been nursed on chisels and 
mallets, which he came to use so naturally — so 
supernaturally, those would say who delighted to 
call him the " divine man." 

Angelo found Florence, as Savonarola found 
it, the intellectual and aesthetic center of civil- 
ization. Here art vied with nature, and human 
genius with creative power, in making the fair 
capital of Tuscany as lovely as it was influ- 
ential. Masters had been there, as we have 
seen — architects, such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, 
and Arnolfo ; sculptors, such as Ghiberti and 
Donatello; and painters, of whom the chief were 
Cimabue, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Lippi, and 
Perugino. Angelo was born twelve years be- 
fore Raphael, and became famous before Raphael 
was known. Da Vinci was in his prime when 
Angelo came, a mere boy, into the arena of ri- 
valry, to bear away the crown. Having, as a 
child, left his instructors far behind, he now 
came to match his power against the greatest 
artists of the age, and soon, by common consent, 
he stood supreme. 

The revival of art was the most character- 
istic feature of the Renaissance, and Michael 
Angelo gave character to the revival. In say- 
ing all this, we do not forget the works and 




RAPHAEL. 



The Renaissance. 97 

influence of Raphael and Da Vinci, the only 
two who have ever been considered great enough 
to be his rivals. Sir Joshua Reynolds said: 
" It is to Michael Angelo that we owe the exist- 
ence of a Raphael. It is to him that Raphael 
owes the grandeur of his style." Raphael himself 
thanked God that he had been born in the age 
of Buonarotti. It was decided also by a famous 
contest in Florence, that Angelo was the supe- 
rior of Da Vinci in design. This is not saying 
that every lover of art has admired the "Last 
Judgment," by Angelo, above the " Transfigura- 
tion," by Raphael, or the "Last Supper," by 
Leonardo. It is not saying that Leonardo and 
Raphael were inferior to Angelo in coloring and 
in the power to delineate beauty. But Angelo 
was a many-sided genius, and was great on every 
side. Raphael and Da Vinci rivaled him only in 
painting. Angelo was more than a painter. He 
was great as a painter, great as a sculptor, 
great as an architect, great as an engineer, 
great as a poet, and great as a man. Raph- 
ael and Da Vinci were great only in painting. 
Michael Angelo always prided himself on be- 
ing a sculptor. When called upon to attempt 
painting or architecture, he boasted that he was 
a sculptor, but modestly denied that he was 



98 Providential Epochs. «. 

either a painter or an arcliitect It has been 
claimed, and justly, that Angelo's frescoes and 
architectural designs are manifestly the work of 
a sculptor who has, for the time, laid aside the 
chisel to experiment with pencil and compass. 

The first nineteen or twenty years of his ca- 
reer were devoted almost entirely to the plastic 
art. He undertook nothing of importance in 
painting before the year 1508. He began his 
artistic career by a careful study of the antique 
as found in the classic models with which Flor- 
ence and Rome had been enriched. The prod- 
ucts of his chisel for the first ten years after his 
admission to the garden of the Medici, manifest 
the influence of classicism, the grace, finish, and 
ideality of Greek art. The " Bacchus " and 
"Adonis" of the National Museum in Florence, 
the "Madonna Delia Pieta" of St. Peter's in 
Rome, the " Madonna and Child " of Notre 
Dame in Bruges, are all in the sculptor's first or 
classical manner ; they are not particularly Mi- 
chaelangelesque. 

From this time on, say from the age of 
twenty-five, we see the results of his study, not 
of Greek statues, but of the human body — of 
nature. As Shakespeare, in the creation of an 
English drama, broke away from the limitations 




"MOSES," BY MICHAEL ANGELO. 



The Renaissance, 99 

of the classical drama and seemed to ignore the 
laws of Aristotle, for which Voltaire severely 
criticised him, so Michael Angelo, as "myriad- 
minded " in art as was the Bard of Avon in lit- 
erature, with the audacity of a supreme genius, 
of a self-sufihcient creator, struck out a new path; 
a path, however, which he alone could safely 
and triumphantly pursue ; a path in which he 
became the creator and leader of Italian art. A 
profound study of nature, or of anatomy, re- 
sulted in greater individuality and less ideality 
of plastic expression in the work of Angelo. 
His departure from the Greek ideals to the less 
graceful and placid, but more realistic and indi- 
vidual, may be discovered in the statue of 
" Christ" at Rome, and the superb heroic statue 
of " David," at Florence, which was produced 
in Angelo's twenty-ninth year. The statue of 
" Moses," originally intended for the tomb of 
Julius II, in Rome, which was never completed 
according to Angelo's magnificent design, and 
the tombs of Julian and Lorenzo de' Medici, in 
San Lorenzo, Florence, are doubtless the noblest 
creations of modern sculpture, the production of 
a genius who was a law unto himself, if not a 
law to the world for all time. 

When, at the age of thirty-three, Angelo 



loo Providential Epochs. 

was called upon by Pope Julius to fresco the Sis- 
tine Chapel built by Sixtus IV, he protested that 
he was not a painter, and generously recom- 
mended Raphael. He little knew what powers 
were hidden within him awaiting development. 
He finally yielded to the demands of Julius, 
shut himself up to the work, and, after four 
years, threw open the Sistine Chapel to astonish 
the world with his marvelous creations, which 
inaugurated a new era in the history of art. 
That glorious ceiling, one hundred and thirty- 
one feet long by forty-four feet wide, is peo- 
pled with no less than three hundred and forty- 
three figures of sibyls, prophets, and patriarchs. 
The central space is divided into nine pictures 
of earlier sacred history, from the Creation to 
the Flood. The figure of Adam, in the space 
devoted to the "Creation of Adam," has been 
pronounced " the grandest figure in modern 
art," while in the entire work Christian art 
reached its climax. 

In the production of these wonderful frescoes 
of the Sistine ceiling, Angelo became supreme 
monarch in the realm of painting. What- 
ever may have been the promise and fame of 
Raphael up to this time, it is a significant fact 
that he changed his manner when he saw the 



The Renaissance. ioi 

magnificent figures created by the genius of Mi- 
chael Angelo — a tribute in itself to the leader- 
ship and superiority of Angelo. 

It was not until twenty years later that Clem- 
ent VII called upon Angelo to finish the deco- 
ration of the Sistine Chapel with a picture of the 
" Last Judgment." Paul III, still later, was 
anxious to carry out Clement's design, and urged 
the painter to the work, which was finished on 
Christmas, 1541, after eight years of toil, and 
when the artist was at the good age of sixty- 
six. This, the largest picture in the world, 
covers a space at one end of the chapel of fifty 
four feet six inches by forty-three feet six inches. 
It contains three hundred and fourteen figures 
of superhuman mold, in which nearly every 
possible attitude of the human form is deline- 
ated with the power of truthfulness unparalleled 
in the history of painting. 

In these wonderful frescoes of the Sistine 
Chapel, and in the creations of his chisel, An- 
gelo seems to have considered the human form 
as the highest object in nature for art-study and 
delineation. He does not seem to have studied 
the anatomy of the tree, of the beast, or of the 
landscape, with any such devotion as that with 
which he mastered the anatomy of the human 



I02 Providential Epochs. 

form. He repudiated as unworthy of his pow- 
ers easel-painting and all painting in oils. As 
a consequence, we look in vain among his cre- 
ations for such glorious portraits as were pro- 
duced by Rembrandt, Velasquez, and Reynolds. 
The sweetness and beauty of such colorists as 
Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Correggio, Millet, 
and Diaz are not to be found in his works ; 
while the landscapes of Claude, Ruysdael, Hob- 
bema, Corot, and Rousseau would have been as 
foreign to his taste and style as the lyre of 
Apollo would have been to the thunder-hurling 
Jupiter. 

Though the nude human form was the only 
object in nature which Angelo considered worthy 
of interpretation in art, we never find his genius 
prostituting itself to the sensuality so charac- 
teristic of the modern French school. The nude 
of Angelo's art is never the sensual. To his 
eye the human form was " fearfully and wonder- 
fully made" — the masterpiece of creative power. 
Its most nearly perfect delineation in stone or 
bronze or colors must be the masterpiece of art 
genius. Doubtless he saw that every thought 
and feeling, every passion and mood of mind or 
heart was accompanied by a corresponding phys- 
ical expression, and the body was, in every su- 



The Renaissance. 103 

preme moment, a perfect index of the soul. 
Hence the nudity of figures in the "Last Judg- 
ment." The intensity of the rapture, or of the 
misery, is indicated by the physical attitude. 
We do not mean that the artist would leave the 
impression that the happiness or the suffering 
of the last day will be physical. He seemed, 
however, to have found the truth that mental 
suffering or mental delight can be pictured only 
by their physical effects or accompaniments. 
Whether it be, therefore, to delineate in art the 
noblest object in nature as a thing of beauty, or 
to interpret mental states, passions, feelings, and 
moods of the soul by corresponding physical 
expression, Angelo chooses the human form as 
the most perfect model for artistic study and 
interpretation. 

There is nothing more distantly removed 
from French nudity, nothing more Puritanical 
in art, if the anachronism may be pardoned, than 
those solemn, serious portraitures in the Sistine 
frescoes. The Chapel of Sixtus is full of the 
spirit of Dante and Savonarola, of Moses and 
St. John. Michael Angelo is more than a painter 
here. He is a preacher, a revelator. 

In 1546, Paul n called Angelo to be the ar- 
chitect of St. Peter's in Rome. The artist was 



I04 Providential Epochs. 

then seventy-one years of age. Again Angelo 
modestly protested that he was a scnlptor, not 
an architect. Even at that advanced age he 
was not fully aware of the powers that were 
still hidden within him and waiting for an op- 
portunity to develop for a wonderful advance- 
ment. He was finally persuaded to assume the 
vast undertaking, which had proven so perplex- 
ing to Bramanti, San Gallo, and Raphael. For 
eighteen years he toiled upon this stupendous 
edifice, without pay, all for the glory of God and 
for that reward which he expected from his Di- 
vine Master in the higher world. 

In this last work Angelo produced his mas- 
terpiece, the culminating triumph of which was 
lifting the "Pantheon into the air," crowning 
the great cathedral with that magnificent dome 
which rivaled the dome of Brunelleschi in Flor- 
ence, and became the despair of Sir Christopher 
Wren when he built St. Paul's of London. 
Angelo did not live to see the completion of 
his designs, nor were they completed until 
twenty-seven years after his death. Had he 
lived to finish his work doubtless the noble 
structure would have presented a more perfect 
and imposing appearance than it came to as- 
sume under the modifications introduced by his 



The Renaissance. 105 

successors. St. Peter's stands to-day as the re- 
sult and the monument of three hundred years 
of artistic experiment, toil, and achievement, 
representing an expenditure of fifty millions of 
dollars. Michael Angelo's genius made its com- 
pletion possible, and his art constitutes it the 
most glorioiis triumph of modern architecture. 
His last work was his greatest, and it formed 
a fitting climax of the noblest career in the his- 
tory of art. 

Angelo lived to be eighty-nine years old. 
He outlived all his rivals and all his most con- 
spicuous patrons. Thirteen different popes oc- 
cupied the pontifical chair during his life, from 
Sixtus IV to Pius IV. He witnessed nearly all 
the changes, all the achievements, which made 
up the brilliant epoch of the Renaissance. 
From the day he entered the garden of the 
Medici as a lad of fourteen, to enjoy the patron- 
age of Lorenzo, to the day on which he died at 
Rome in his ninetieth year, he was a most in- 
dustrious workman. What monuments stand 
to-day in Florence and Rome to celebrate the 
genius and industry of this wonderful man! 
There are at least ten such monuments, any 
one of which would immortalize the name of 
him who produced it. The statue of "David" 



io6 Providential Epochs. 

in Florence, what can compare with it except 
the "Apollo Belvedere" at the Vatican? The 
colossal statue of "Moses" in Rome, what can 
rival it except the "Farnese Hercules" in Na- 
ples? The statue of the crucified "Savior" in 
the arms of Mary, to be seen in St. Peter's, what 
composition in marble has equal merits except 
the "Laocoon?" Three works of this wonder- 
ful chisel are rivaled only by the three greatest 
achievements of antiquity. But looking upon 
the tombs of the Medici in Florence, the fres- 
coes of the Sistine Chapel, and the Church of 
St. Peter's in Rome, one must admit that they 
have stood for three hundred years unrivaled, the 
superb masterpieces in their departments of the 
supreme genius in modern art. Had three dif- 
ferent men left us the statues of "David" or 
"Moses," the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, 
and the dome of St. Peter's, they would be pro- 
nounced the three greatest geniuses of modern 
history — the greatest sculptor, the greatest 
painter, and the greatest architect. Yet one 
genius produced them all — the thrice-gifted 
Florentine, the art-trinity Angelo. 

It may easily be imagined how bright the 
art-age became which was lighted up by the 
genius of such a man. The age that witnessed 



The Renaissance. 107 

the carving of such a statue as "David" or 
"Moses," the painting of such a fresco as the 
"Last Judgment," and the building of such a 
temple as St. Peter's, must needs revive and be- 
come great. No wonder the boys of Rome and 
Florence grew up to be painters, sculptors, and 
architects, when the praises of Angelo were on 
the lips of the people and of princes and popes, 
while the beautiful creations of his genius made 
cities famous and all Italy glorious. These 
works brought with them a new art ambition 
and impulse to the world, and Angelo became 
to the new art movement in Ital}^ and in Chris- 
tendom what Shakespeare became to the new 
literary. Bacon to the new philosophical, New- 
ton to the new scientific, Wesley to the new 
religious, and Washington to the new republi- 
can, movements of the English-speaking world. 
It has been noticed that Angelo was a dis- 
ciple of Savonarola, a student of his sermons 
and theology, and was from his youth of a re- 
ligious turn of mind. Dante deeply impressed 
him through his works, and though the artist 
was originally cast into a large and noble mold, 
yet these two somber religionists, the greatest 
poet and greatest preacher of Italy, had a power- 
ful influence upon him in fashioning his char- 



io8 Providential Epochs. 

acter, and through his character making an im- 
press — a theological, a Christian impress — upon 
his art. 

Angelo was a man of conscience, of high 
moral purpose; serious, thoughtful, devout; full 
of convictions, full of the Bible, full of God, full 
of eternity. The strictest integrity marked all 
his dealings with his fellow-men. He was 
temperate in the midst of universal intemper- 
ance, serious in the midst of prevailing worldli- 
ness, economical in the midst of a fashionable 
extravagance and profligacy, pure and righteous 
in the midst of uncondemned but shameful sens- 
uality. He would have been a Puritan in Crom- 
well's land. He kept himself singularly aloof 
from the corruption of his age, and maintained 
in a very unrighteous country and time an ex- 
alted character and spotless reputation worthy a 
disciple of Jesus Christ. Angelo's integrity, 
reverence, holy fear of God, belief in Jesus 
Christ and knowledge of the Scripture found ex- 
pression in his art. His works w^ere religious, 
his art was Scriptural and Christian, as truly as 
was the poetry of Dante and the preaching of 
Savonarola. When it is considered that the 
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is decorated with 
Scriptural scenes from the " creation of the 



The Renaissance. 109 

world," that his greatest popular triumph if not 
his most highly artistic achievement was "The 
Last Judgment," that his chief works in marble 
were Scriptural characters, such as David, Moses, 
and Jesus, and that during eighteen years Angelo 
devoted himself to his great work of building St. 
Peter's, the noblest religious structure of Europe, 
refusing all pay except such as he prayed God 
would bestow upon him in the next world, we are 
impressed with the religious character and mis- 
sion of Angelo's art. 

This spirit which was breathed into Angelo's 
great works had its influence on the art of his age, 
freed it from much of the old paganism that had 
enslaved and degraded it in the past, and gave it 
a more vigorous, more noble and Christian char- 
acter. There is a sense in which Angelo was 
the Luther of art, or, better still, the Constan- 
tine of art. He led it out of the despotism and 
slavery of paganism, and pledged it as an instru- 
ment of power to Christianity. Angelo was the 
autocrat of the art-life of the Renaissance and 
from the age of eighteen or twenty to the age of 
ninety, or for seventy years, he wielded the scep- 
ter of authority over that empire, the achieve- 
ments of which still fill Europe with beauty, and 
the hearts of all art-lovers with admiration. 



no Providential Epochs. 

Michael Angelo is the art authority for this 
age, as he was for his own, and, as said of 
Shakespeare, 

" He was not of an age." 

The English masters, Reynolds, Lawrence, and 
Flaxman, looked beyond all other teachers to 
Angelo. Sir Thomas Lawrence compared the 
works of Raphael and Angelo as the elegant to 
the sublime, and affirmed that Raphael never 
produced aught equal to the "Adam " and 
" Eve " of Angelo. Flaxman, who looked at 
art from a classical standpoint, said: "The 
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the ' Last 
Judgment,' taken together as two portions of 
one whole, are unparalleled in the history of 
art, ancient or modern, in the vastness of the 
idea, the grandeur of the subject, the dignity of 
the characters." 

What Northcote admitted, doubtless every 
great and true artist who has visited Rome 
will admit: "For once I went to look at 
Raphael I went twice to look at Michael 
Angelo." 

Doubtless Michael Angelo was the noblest 
genius of the Renaissance, and his work the 
most enduringly great. Savonarola's mission 
was more local, less definite. His work was 



The Renaissance. hi 

preparatory, abiding in spirit, but not in form, 
appearing remotely as an influence in the 
Reformation, and even later in Italian unity 
and freedom. 

The literature of the Renaissance does not 
occupy a prominent and conspicuous place in 
the history of letters. It was pedantic, but 
not original and vigorous with genius. Poli- 
tian's translations, verses, and epigrams, Lan- 
dino's commentaries on Dante, Ficino's Pla- 
tonic studies, Lorenzo's poems, and Machiavel's 
political ethics lack the universality of genius 
and interest which alone immortalizes literature. 
The art of the Renaissance was its crowning 
glory, its most perfect creation ; and when we 
study the art of Michael Angelo we find our- 
selves in the presence of a universal genius. 
Here is the master. He will forever be so rec- 
ognized. Art itself does not outgrow him. He 
was the secret ; Angelo is art. With Lorenzo 
and Savonarola, Angelo was a providential man 
in a providential epoch. His work was as essen- 
tial in the foundations of modern freedom as 
any accomplished by the prince or the martyr. 
The regeneration of art was as necessary as the 
revival of letters and the awakening of con- 
science. These geniuses, though so diverse in 



112 Providential Epochs. 

character, tastes, and influence, were bound to- 
gether in a higher harmony than they knew, 
and were, though unconsciously, co-workers in 
the emancipation of intellect and the reawak- 
ening of an independent, conscientious, and 
enlightened humanism. 



/■ 




MARTIN LUTHER. 



II. 

The Reformation. 



II. 

THE REFORMATION. 

THE central idea of the Renaissance was cul- 
ture ; of the Reformation, faith. In Italy 
an effort was made to restore ancient learning ; 
in Germany a demand arose for the faith 
once delivered to the saints. The Renaissance 
filled the South with classic splendor, both in 
art and letters. The Reformation restored to 
the North liberty of conscience and simplicity of 
worship. These great movements were related. 
The revival of learning was tributary to the 
new religious advancement, and its influence 
comes down to us helpfully in the vigorous 
progress of modern religious life. If there had 
been no Reformation, the results of the Renais- 
sance could not have been found in the German 
and Anglo-Saxon civilization of to-day. The 
revival spirit which brought the Age of Culture 
came from the Greek Church, and finally poured 
itself into the Protestant Church, and has been 
transmitted through German, English, and Amer- 
ican life to this hour. Had it not been for the 
remnant of classical scholarship possessed by 

115 



ii6 Providential Epochs. 

the Greek Churchmen who came into Italy from 
Constantinople at the fall of the Byzantine Em- 
pire there would have been no revival of letters ; 
and if it had not been for the uprising of Prot- 
estantism, the results of that revival of letters 
would have perished, and the very spirit of 
reason and learning would have disappeared. 

We are indebted to the Christian Church for 
the preservation of all the jewels that fell from 
the broken and shattered crown of ancient cul- 
ture. The languages which shone with the 
poetic genius of a Dante, a Homer, and a Virgil, 
and with the philosophic spirit and wisdom of a 
Job, a Solomon, a Plato, and a Tully; the great 
languages, and therewith the great literatures of 
the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Latins, were 
preserved by the Church, and by it handed 
down to modern taste and learning. It was, 
however, the Greek branch of the Christian 
Church, and not the Latin, which, through the 
Middle Ages, was the conservator of the invalu- 
able treasures of the Greek tongue. At the be- 
ginning of the revival of learning, the Latin or 
Roman Catholic Church imbibed the old classic 
spirit, but turned it to sensuality and worldliness 
rather than to scientific, ethical, and religious en- 
lightenment. Italy had run its course of intel- 



The Reformation. 117 

lectual revival and progress in one hundred 
years, and was on the brink of another age of 
darkness. Art, literature, and wealth were de- 
clining, and with them was involved the so- 
called new civilization. When the Reformation 
came, and with it the Protestant form of Chris- 
tianity, it caught the spirit of intellectual prog- 
ress which was forsaking the Roman Church, in- 
stilled it into the life of the dominant nations of 
Northern Europe, and thereby gave to all our 
modern civilization its high intellectual, aesthet- 
ical, and religious character. It was the religious 
revival that preserved the intellectual revival 
from being extinguished, and not the revival of 
learning that saved the religious reformation 
from failure. 

Take a rapid survey of the first fourteen hun- 
dred years of the Christian Era. The decline 
of Rome began with the close of the reign 
of Augustus, who was emperor when Christ was 
born. The succeeding three hundred years 
witnessed the universal spread of Christianity, 
so that at the time of Constantine it was made 
the State religion of the empire. In the deepest 
moral and spiritual sense the Roman Empire had 
not been Christianized. In fact, paganism was 
quite extensively intermixed with Christianity, 



ii8 Providential Epochs. 

and the pure, simple gospel of apostolic tirnes 
was comprehended and experienced by the hearts 
and lives of but few in the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies. When the rugged and barbarous North- 
men came down in fury and overwhelmed the 
declining empire, it came in contact, not with an 
apostolic Church, nor with a Church of Protestant 
intelligence and purity, but with a Church more 
or less tinctured with paganism. During the 
Dark Ages following the fall of Roman civiliza- 
tion, the Latin Church, instead of throwing off 
the elements of paganism attached to it, only 
became more deeply paganized. Abuses crept 
into Christian ecclesiasticism, and errors poisoned 
Christian doctrines. The worship of the Virgin 
Mary, devotion to relics, the confessional, the 
nunner}^, the celibacy of the priesthood, image- 
worship, prayers to saints, the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation, the ecclesiastical and political as- 
cendency of the Bishop of Rome, his elevation 
to pontifical supremacy, the establishment of the 
papacy, and the promulgation of the right of the 
temporal power of the pope, with many other 
unscriptural, unreasonable, and corrupting abuses, 
belong in their genesis to the Dark Ages. Under 
the weight of these errors, the Church's spiritual 
life was crushed out, the dominant ecclesiasti- 



The Reformation. 119 

cism became little less than a religions, intel- 
lectual, and political tyranny, subjecting the 
nations under its control to the yoke of Rome, 
and to a bondage of conscience, reason, and 
speech that checked the progress of humanity 
and the growth of civilization. With the revival 
of art at the close of the fifteenth century the 
Roman Church took on a worldly splendor, but 
not a new spiritual life. The revival of ancient 
learning became an occasion for a renewal of 
pagan tastes and pagan licentiousness. Monks, 
nuns, priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes be- 
came as profligate as the people. The chief am- 
bition of Leo X was to aggrandize Rome ; and 
he, with his immediate predecessors and succes- 
sors in the pontifical chair, did not scruple to 
bankrupt Europe in order to sustain and aug- 
ment the material splendor of the papal court. 
Now and then, as we have found, a voice was 
heard protesting against the worldliness of the 
Church and the absence of spiritual life in the 
so-called ministers of God. But there was a 
short and easy method for silencing such voices. 
So Huss, and Jerome of Bohemia, and Savon- 
arola of Italy, learned in martyr-flames. The 
people, however, were beginning to think. The 
recently-invented printing-press was educating 



I20 Providential Epochs. 

the masses, widening their views, kindling their 
self-regard, enlightening their nnderstan dings, and 
quickening their consciences. Those haughty, 
independent Germans were beginning to wince 
under the galling yoke of Roman dictation, and 
the feeling was daily growing deeper and more 
general that the yoke must be broken and the 
thralldom ended. All that was needed was a 
leader, a man of genius to marshal the people 
for the issue. 

Luther was historically the harvester of the 
fruitful results of remote and much earlier sow- 
ings. No doubt, from early Middle Age history 
the Waldenses and Albigenses had preserved the 
simplicity of Christian worship, having broken 
away from the Roman authority on the intro- 
duction of the abuses and idolatries above men- 
tioned. They had kept the fires of a purer faith 
burning on their altars. As the outer world oc- 
casionally came in contact with these secluded 
and often persecuted peoples, it caught their 
spirit, and individuals, awakened to new spiritual 
life, carried abroad the zeal for a simple Chris- 
tianity, which proved a spark divine to kindle de- 
votion anew in many a distant community. 
But when, at the close of the twelfth century, 
the French Waldenses were dispersed and, by 



The Reformation. 121 

papal edict, were driven from their homes and 
scattered abroad, many of them found shelter in 
Bohemia. There, with their devoted leader, 
Peter Waldo, they planted the seed of reforma- 
tion which bore the significant harvest of the 
Hussite movement. It will also be remembered 
that the revival of learning had created in the 
minds of leading thinkers of Italy a contempt 
for the authority of an ignorant and superstitious 
ecclesiasticism. Savonarola had, in addition, 
unmasked the corruptions of the Church to the 
people. Much earlier, Wyclif had begun his en- 
lightening, liberalizing work in England. Eras- 
mus, too, had just set the thoughtful world 
smiling by his witty ridicule of the abuses he 
found in Rome. Thus the Reformation sprang 
from a confluence of many agencies, vigorous 
protests arising in England, France, Bohemia, 
Holland, Italy, and meeting in Germany in the 
lifetime of a man who proved himself the man 
for the hour. Deeply as modern progress was 
indebted to Abelard, Wyclif, Waldo, Huss, Sa- 
vonarola, and Erasmus, no one of them had all 
the elements of a great leader. They contributed 
impulse, zeal, and enlightenment to the move- 
ment by their teachings and sacrifices. They 
had an influence on Luther ; their work was pre- 

9 



122 Providential Epochs. 

paratory to his ; but no one of them had the 
commanding genius to lead Europe to moral 
battle. 

It must be admitted, moreover, that in the 
time of Huss, W^clif, or even Savonarola, the 
people were not quite ready to be led. In 
fact, no one ever became a great leader unless 
he had great followers, nor do great leaders ap- 
pear until the people are ready to follow their 
leaders. No man could have led Europe to the 
glorious victory of a Reformation a hundred 
years, or even twenty years, before Luther, in 
the providence of God, sprang into history, en- 
dowed with just the genius to lead Europe to 
religious liberty. Luther came when the hour 
of need struck in this great revolution, just when 
the people were ready for a leader. He did not 
create the circumstances ; circumstances very 
largely created him, and his historic greatness 
is due to the fact that the German life — that in- 
dependent Teutonic spirit — was rising indig- 
nantly to hurl back an unintellectual, bigoted, 
and cruel Romish supremacy. He had the very 
qualities of mind and heart that fitted him to 
lead that uprising German life and conviction to 
religious independence. 

In 1483, the same year that Raphael was born 



The Reformation. 123 

to make Italy splendid with art, the same year 
that Rabelais was born to make France laugh 
with his grimaces, Martin Luther was born to 
restore Christianity to the world. As we glance at 
the state of human affairs, we are reminded that 
at this period Savonarola was preaching for the 
first time in Florence. Michael Angelo was just 
beginning to draw charcoal sketches on the walls 
of his father's house. Copernicus was learning 
the multiplication table at his mother's knee, in 
Thorn. Americus Vespucius was clerking down 
in Florence. Only forty years before, printing 
had been invented ; and nine years later, America 
was discovered. 

Martin Luther is born, and with him the Ref- 
ormation, religious liberty, and Protestantism. 

Look at some of the events in Luther's life. 
They are the nerve-centers of the Reformation. 
Electric-shocks — nay, life-shocks — leap from these 
centers, thrilling Europe, quickening humanity, 
giving course and character to history. Call it 
chance, coincidence, or Providence; but often at 
that cradle-side at Eisleben went up the prayer 
from the heart of Hans Luther, the humble 
peasant: " Grant, O God, that he may become 
a real Luther in thy Church " (*' Luther " mean- 
ing *' a refiner "). Doubtless that very prayer 



124 Providential Epochs. 

indicated that not only the statesmen and upper 
ranks of Germany, but even the humble peas- 
ants, were thinking of the corruptions of the 
Church, and were looking for a deliverer and 
leader. Yonder, three thousand years before, 
God's people were in bondage, yet growing in- 
dependent and progressive in spirit, when a 
brave leader appeared, whose very infancy and 
childhood were overshadowed by Providence, 
until, at the call of God, Moses stepped forth to 
herald and to lead an Exodus. Fifteen hundred 
years later, the Angel of the Lord announced to 
the devout priest, Zacharias, the coming of one 
with all the elements of a reformer and leader, 
who should prepare the way for a new dispen- 
sation and turn the people toward Christ, and 
John the Baptist was given to be the herald of 
the Messiah. Just fifteen hundred years later, 
the Providence which watches over the world's 
destinies and is shaping history for human sal- 
vation and for the universal dominion off Jesus 
Christ, gave to the German peasants, Hans and 
Margaret Luther, a son, over whose very cradle 
the prayer was offered that he might be a Re- 
finer of the Church of God. There was as much 
Providence in the birth of Martin Luther, just 
when the world needed him, as there was in the 



The Reformation. 125 

birth of Moses, or of John the Baptist. So, to- 
day, leaders and reformers are as divinely sent 
as ever they have been in the history of the 
world. Sacred history is being made in these 
Christian centuries. God is in it. Christ is in 
it. The power of truth is in it. The spirit of 
redemption and enlightenment is in it. Look 
again : those humble wood-choppers become 
restless at their very toil in thinking of the boy 
who already gives indications of the genius and 
power that are in him, and while there, swing- 
ing the axe with sturdy stroke, Hans Luther 
says: "Martin must be educated." Does it not 
occur to us that ignorant men could not have 
led on that great Reformation? Behold the lead- 
ers God has chosen ! Moses, learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians ; Paul, the pupil of 
Gamaliel and master of the learning of his 
time ; Wesley, graduate and Greek lecturer of 
Oxford University ; Luther, one of the ablest 
scholars of his age ! Surely, that Hans and Mar- 
garet Luther builded better than they knew 
when they said, even in their poverty : " Martin 
must be educated." That resolution made pos- 
sible the logical subtilty, the power of expres- 
sion, the polemical skill, the scholarship, the 
high intellectual life, which met and confounded 



126 Providential Epochs. 

the diplomats, the debaters, the royal and priestly 
agents of a corrnpt papacy ; that resolution made 
possible the immortal theses which were the 
Reformation's declaration of independence ; that 
resolution made possible the German translation 
of the Bible, the public-school system of Ger- 
many, and all those blessings to the German 
people and to the world that grew out of Martin 
Luther's scholarship and education. 

Another simple,"pathetic incident in this life 
attracts attention. Martin Luther, at the age of 
fourteen, is walking the streets of Eisenach, 
singing from door to door, for food to keep him 
from starvation while he studies in the famous 
school in that place. Clear, sweet, and pathetic, 
that pure tenor voice rings out in a song for 
bread. In these days is cultivated that love for 
music which shall give songs to Germany. Little 
could any one have thought that he who sang from 
door to door for bread would give to his country 
songs with which her mighty armies, four hun- 
dred years later, should march to battles and to 
victories. But as an historic fact to which Mr. 
Fronde calls attention, in the Franco-Prussian 
War the German regiments marched into battle, 
singing Luther's paraphrase of the Psalm : 

" Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott!" 



The Reformation. 127 

Look upon another nerve-center of that great 
time. Luther is twenty. He is seated one 
morning in the library of the University of Er- 
furt. He holds in his hand for the first time a 
Holy Bible ; his heart beats with a strange exhil- 
aration; his great, black, lion-like eyes burn 
with a new fire, and he reads with the eagerness 
with which the panting hart drinks from the 
water-brook. It may have been then, or pos- 
sibly later, that his eyes fell upon the inspired 
words, "The just shall live by faith;" but certain 
it is, that then and there was born the funda- 
mental doctrine of the Reformation. The Bible 
is sole authority in belief and conduct — not 
priests, not popes, not Councils, not the Church, 
but "the Bible" is sole authority in belief and 
conduct. Here was the idea which met and 
overwhelmed the power of the papacy; here was 
the doctrine that broke the yoke of Rome from 
the fair neck of Germany; here was the truth 
which to this hour was to battle victoriously, not 
only against the errors of Roman Catholicism//but 
against the haughty bigotry of Rationalism and 
infidelity: "the Bible," not superstition, reason, 
science, nor philosophy; not the preacher, the 
priest, the pope, the Church, nor the State, but 
" the Bible is sole authority in belief and conduct." 



128 Providential Epochs. 

All are familiar with that tragic scene which 
had so much to do with directing the future 
course of Luther — the sudden death of his chum, 
Alexis. IvUther had graduated at twenty-two, 
and was contemplating the study of law, when 
one day his chum was assassinated, or, as one 
tradition has it, was struck dead by lightning as 
he walked beside Luther in the field. That 
event turned the future steps of Luther to a de- 
vout life, and he entered the monastery of St. 
Augustine at Erfurt, while the great question 
kept pounding away in his heart: "Am I saved? 
am I saved?" 

We can not pass over Luther's consecration 
to the priesthood without emphasizing the sig- 
nificant fact that he became a devoted disciple 
of Augustine, and a constant, profound student 
of his pure, spiritual teachings, which had been 
sadly neglected in both the study and practice of 
the Church. The young and eloquent monk be- 
came a lecturer in the University of Wittenberg. 
By the elevated tone of his moral instruction 
and the deep, spiritual feeling that animated all 
he said, together with his learning and eloquence, 
he attracted ever-increasing numbers of students 
to his lectures. 
/^ At the age of twenty-seven, Luther was sent 



The Reformation. 129 

to Rome on some business connected with his 
Order. There Leo X was reigning in pontifical 
splendor. Bramante was rebuilding St. Peter's, 
Michael Angelo was frescoing the Sistine Chapel, 
and on every hand rose monuments of reviving 
art whose beauty struck awe to the heart of the 
simple and devout German monk. He was 
struck with astonishment, but also overwhelmed 
with shame and grief, because he saw associated 
with all the material magnificence of Rome a 
worldliness and profligacy which he had never 
dreamed could have crept into the Church of 
Christ. The city was filled with images and pic- 
tures which the people had come almost to wor- 
ship, before which they bowed and muttered 
prayers. All sorts of relics, also, were held up 
before the eyes of the credulous and supersti- 
tious as having mysterious power to heal both 
the body and spirit. Forgiveness of sins and 
the salvation of the soul were conditioned on 
penance, on all sorts of physical humiliations 
and inflictions, while spiritual life and true sim- 
ple piety seemed to have forsaken the Church. 
The most significant picture in Luther's short 
stay in Rome, and one that presents to our 
thought another of those nerve-centers of the 
Reformation, is his ascent of Pilate's Stairs. 



130 Providential Epochs. 

Here, tradition says, Luther was ascending the 
stairs on his bare knees, hoping thereby to please 
God and find that peace for which he had long 
been praying. While in this exercise there came 
to him, like a flash of light, those words which he 
had read in the Bible up in Germany: "The just 
shall live by faith. ^''i Not by penance, not by 
physical sufferings, not by torture, not by su- 
perstitious rites and ceremonies, not by the deeds 
of the law, not by works, but "the just shall live 
by faith." He sprang to his feet, hurried from the 
place, and soon left Rome, saying: "If there be a 
hell, Rome is built on top of it." He returned 
to Germany with new notions of Rome, and with 
a new idea of salvation. That idea which came 
to him from the Spirit of God on Pilate's Stairs, 
or elsewhere, "The just shall live by faith," be- 
came the battle-cry of the Reformation. It was 
the idea which smote the Goliah of papacy in 
the forehead, the doctrine which gave birth to 
Protestantism, the truth which makes the Church 
mighty to-day, and the preaching of which is the 
salvation of the people. It is the central truth 
of every evangelical denomination at this hour. 
That doctrine, united with the other that "the 
Bible is the sole authority in belief and conduct," 
has preserved to mankind the results of the Ref- 



The Reformation. 131 

ormation, and has been the fountain of that light 
which has streamed forth in civilizing beauty and 
power upon the Protestant nations of the earth. 
It was the fall of 15 19, October, that another 
scene was enacted in this divine drama of the 
Reformation and in the providential life of 
Luther. Papacy was bankrupt. The extrava- 
gance at Rome, the fabulous expenditures of 
money in the material aggrandizement of the 
Holy City, the rebuilding of St. Peter's Cathe- 
dral and the pride and profligacy of the papal 
court made it necessary for the pope to send 
agents throughout Europe to collect money from 
the people. It will be admitted that the people 
and their sovereigns were growing weary of the 
demands of Rome. There had long been devel- 
oping a spirit of protest and rebellion against an 
almost bankrupting support of Roman extrava- 
gance. The people were being impoverished to 
support a profligate papacy. Leo X had imbibed 
the spirit of the Renaissance, and took pride in 
the material aggrandizement of Rome. He was 
devoted to art and letters, but was wholly desti- 
tute of the spirit of religion. He was a Medici, 
proud, worldly, extravagant, and profligate. He 
did not scruple to devote money contributed for 
religious purposes to the gratification of his own 



132 Providential Epochs. 

pride, lust, and ambition. It may have been 
providential that one so indifferent to the doc- 
trinal controversies, and entirely lacking in zeal 
for ecclesiastical and religious affairs, was in the 
pontifical chair when Luther began his work. 
No doubt Leo X contributed to the promotion of 
the Reformation by his indifference to religious 
conditions and his ambitious extravagances in 
the material aggrandizement of his reign. To 
replenish his depleted treasury Leo sent forth his 
agents to offer indulgences to the people at a 
price. It was a most bountiful source of revenue. 
For so much money the pope's agents declared 
the people's sins would be forgiven. Even their 
future sins might be forgiven for a proper con- 
sideration ; nay, even the souls of their departed 
friends might be bought out of purgatory for a 
price. One of these agents, Tetzel, entered 
Wittenberg, where Luther was teaching the pure 
doctrines of Augustine. Tetzel spread forth his 
relics, opened his indulgence box, called upon the 
people to purchase pardon for themselves and for 
their departed friends for cash. The matter 
came to the ears of Luther. With holy indignation 
he denounced the whole fraud, wrote out ninety- 
five propositions antagonizing the doctrines of 
penance and indulgences, and teaching the true 



The Reformation. 133 

way of salvation, by heart repentance and faith 
in Christ. These theses he posted on the door 
of the church of Wittenberg. The next morn- 
ing the town was in an uproar. A revokition 
was on. In a fortnight, says D'Aubigne, those 
ninety-five propositions were known all over Ger- 
many. In a month they were read in Rome and 
in every part of Christendom. From that hour 
Luther's pen was busy. The tradition goes, that 
at one time, when tempted by the devil, he hurled 
his inkstand at his head, and struck the wall, 
where the stain of the ink may be seen to this 
day. Certain it is, that Luther began to hurl 
some mighty logical and eloquent ink at the 
head of both the devil and the papacy, and 
proved, as was never so grandly proved before, 
that "the pen is mightier than the sword." Be 
it remembered that Luther would not sanction 
the drawing of the sword to promote the Refor- 
mation. This was to be a conflict of ideas, not 
of swords ; and the pen, more than the sword, 
must have credit for the glorious victories 
achieved for truth and humanity in that Refor- 
mation. The pope commanded Luther's writ- 
ings to be burnt; he excommunicated the heretic; 
he demanded that he be sent to Rome, and all 
the world knew that meant -to the stake. But 



134 Providential Epochs. 

there was a Germany back of Luther, and a Ger- 
man sense of fair play, a German mistrust of the 
honor of the papal powers at Rome, a German 
knowledge of what had become of Huss and 
Savonarola. Luther was not sent to Rome. // 

There was a combination of favorable or prov- 
idential circumstances to help on the initiation 
of the Reformation. Not only was it fortunate 
that Leo X was not a religious bigot and enthu- 
siast, but rather a worldling engrossed in art and 
letters, but it is also fortunate that during the in- 
terregnum after the death of Emperor Maximil- 
ian, the Elector of Saxony was in sympathy with 
Luther. Then there were many political ques- 
tions of importance besides the Turkish problem 
engaging the serious attention of the most big- 
oted Catholic sovereigns, and demanding the con- 
sideration of the Roman power. With this state 
of affairs the reformative ideas had an oppor- 
tunity to work on for some time without serious 
opposition. When Luther was summoned to 
Rome, the Elector of Saxony interposed in his 
behalf, and secured the consent of the pope to 
let the "heretic" be examined by proper agents 
in Germany. The examinations and disputes 
did not result in Luther's submission. In 1520 
he was excommunicated. He tossed the bull 



The Reformation. 135 

of excommunication into the bonfire, and thus 
defied the boasted temporal and spiritual power 
of Rome. That bonfire united its flames with 
those that had kindled about Huss and Savon- 
arola, to light up Europe with the prophecy of 
the coming age of reason. 

When Charles V, of Spanish education, as- 
sumed the German crown, he threw his influence 
against the Reformation, but not without regard 
for that sturdy German sentiment which did not 
propose to have Luther destroyed. He sum- 
moned the reformer to appear before the German 
Diet, the Elector, as we have noticed, having se- 
cured for L/Uther a German hearing, instead of 
an examination at Rome. Without a tremor of 
fear, this man Luther, who had already hurled 
the pope's edicts into the flames, prepared to 
stand alone before the august body of temporal 
and spiritual rulers at Worms. He was warned 
not to go to Worms, because the city was filled 
with his enemies, and his life would be in danger. 
He vowed that, if there were as many devils in 
Worms as tiles on the roofs, he would enter. And 
there he did appear, after long prayer and spirit- 
ual preparation. He was commanded to recant. 
He boldly acknowledged his writings, and as 
bravely refused to take back what he had writ- 



136 Providential Epochs. 

ten. He delivered his defense in German, then 
repeated it in Latin ; and, while that Imperial 
Diet listened, breathless and spell-bonnd, he 
closed with these memorable words: "Unless I 
am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, I 
can not and will not retract. Here I stand ; I 
can do no more. God help me ! Amen!" That 
has justly been called, by Froude and by Carlyle, 
the grandest scene in human history. It was 
virtually the climax of the Reformation. From 
that moment, people, princes, warriors of his- 
toric battle-fields, were ready to defend Luther 
and the cause he championed. It was the cause 
of German liberty and German greatness. From 
that hour the Reformation swept on. It had al- 
ready, and it now more positively, reached be- 
yond Germany, so that France, Holland, Switz- 
erland, England, and Scotland were moved and 
inspired with the new progressive life, while 
such men came forward to champion the Refor- 
mation as Melanchthon, Zwingli, CEcolampadius, 
Farel, Calvin, Tyndale, Cranmer, and Knox. 

Philip Melanchthon was the right hand of 
Martin Luther in his providential work. In 
temperament he was quite the opposite of his 
impetuous and vehement leader. His tastes were 
more scholastic ; his inclination was to thought 




PHILIP MELANCHTHON. 



The Reformation. 137 

rather than action. He attracted the attention 
of the learned world by his lectures on Homer, 
Virgil, and Terence, and became the professor of 
Greek in the University of Wittenberg. Luther 
depended largely on the superior classical schol- 
arship of Melanchthon in his translation of the 
Bible. Doubtless the more gentle and concilia- 
tory spirit of the professor had much to do with 
tempering the fires of Luther's enthusiasm, and 
saving the Reformation from extravagances 
which threatened to destroy its progressive in- 
fluence. His learning, moreover, added intel- 
lectual dignity to the movement, and infused into 
the Reformation the spirit of the Renaissance. 
Melanchthon was perhaps as indisputably the 
author of the first Protestant Confession of Faith, 
the Augsburg Confession, as Thomas Jefferson 
was the author of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. His learning, his elegant literary style, 
his controversial powers, and his deep piety fitted 
him in a pre-eminent degree to complement the 
genius and the work of Luther. 

In Switzerland the Reformation was led on 
by Ulrich Zwingli, a preacher of learning and 
eloquence. As Luther condemned Tetzel and 
the selling of indulgences in Germany, Zwingli, 
with equal vigor, denounced Samson and the in- 



138 Providential Epochs. 

diligences in Switzerland. In many respects the 
Swiss reformer fonnd a kindred spirit in the 
great German leader, and did what he could to 
spread the writings of Luther among his own 
countrymen. On the doctrine of the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper the German and Swiss re- 
formers were drawn into a bitter and disrupting 
controversy. Zwingli could not agree with 
Luther's " consubstantiation " view, but took a 
more rational' position, approaching that which 
came to be held by the great Protestant body. 
Luther's spirit in this sad controversy added 
little to his reputation as a liberal-minded and 
progressive reformer. Zwingli, like Luther, was 
tried for heresy, but with little harm to himself 
and less glory to Rome. This dauntless hero 
was as patriotic as he was pious, and died on the 
field of battle, nobly contending for the religious 
independence of Zurich, which involved the 
most precious principles of civil and religious 
liberty. 

John CEcolampadius was the coadjutor of 
Zwingli in Switzerland, and held about the same 
relation to the latter that Melanchthon sustained 
to Luther. His tastes and disposition were not 
unlike those of Melanchthon. He loved study, 
£md becarne profound in the knowledge of the 



The Reformation. 139 

Greek and Hebrew. The teachings of Luther 
commanded his attention, and finally his hearty 
support, although in the sacramental contro- 
versy he took issue with Luther and Melanch- 
thon, and agreed more nearly with Zwingli. He 
assisted Erasmus in the preparation of his 
commentary on the New Testament, filled with 
distinction the chair of Biblical learning in the 
University of Basle, and, by his lectures, ser- 
mons, and controversial writings, became one of 
the most influential reformers of the age. 

William Farel was born in France, of a 
noble family. He received a liberal education, 
and entered the reform movement with abound- 
ing zeal. He became the flaming evangelist of 
the new awakening both in France and Switzer- 
land. Though a man of physical meanness 
amounting almost to ugliness, he possessed ora- 
torical and argumentative powers of no common 
order. His zeal, however, often overstepped the 
bounds of discretion, while the vehement in- 
tolerance of his manner frequently weakened the 
force and influence of his argument. He went 
from city to city as a torch-bearer, often as a 
firebrand of the Reformation. The masses were 
deeply moved by his vigorous and eloquent 
harangues, and even the more thoughtful and 



140 Providential Epochs. 

learned found it difficult to resist the spell with 
which his impetuous spirit and glowing elo- 
quence seemed to hold them captive. Though 
often provoked to anger and resistance by the 
reformer's scathing denunciations of the priest- 
hood and the papacy, the people could not but 
be aroused to intense thought and inquiry, 
which resulted in the rapid spread of the new 
ideas. 

Hardly less potential in that age than the 
great German, Luther himself, was the great 
Frenchman, John Calvin. This remarkable man, 
though lacking the courage and genius for lead- 
ership, which constituted Luther's greatness, 
was the acknowledged head and front of the 
Reformation in France. Farel, more than any 
other man, influenced Calvin to enlist in the 
new movement. The bigotry of the Sorbonne 
made Paris unsafe for Calvin, and, in spite of 
the friendliness of the Queen of Navarre, he was 
compelled to flee to Basle, where he met such 
reformers as Farel, Bucer, and CEcolampadius. 
At Basle, and finally at Geneva, Calvin advanced 
to the front, and wielded an influence which 
spread over Europe and "changed the face of 
history." He was first to give Protestantism a 
systematic theology ; his " Institutes " mark an 




JOHN CALVIN. 



The Reformatio!^. 141 

epoch in the history of Christian dogmatics. His 
powerful pen made Geneva the center of the 
new school of theology, which has ever since borne 
the name of Calvinism. 

Without condoning his unprotestant and un- 
christian treatment of Serve tus, or justifying his 
imperious, inquisitorial spirit, or subscribing to 
his now almost obsolete peculiarities of doctrine, 
we must recognize Calvin as first in influence 
among those who took up the work of the orig- 
inal Reformers. 

The dauntless and fiery John Knox cham- 
pioned the Reformation in Scotland. Though 
wanting in organizing genius, in literary taste, 
and in theological originality, he nevertheless 
wielded great power from the pulpit, and preached 
sermons which made thrones tremble. Like 
Farel in Switzerland, he accomplished more by 
preaching than by writing. The work of his 
pen, while potent at the time, was but ephem- 
eral, having no such literary and theological per- 
manency as the writings of Calvin or Luther. 
Nevertheless, Carlyle's estimate will remain un- 
challenged by all who study those heroic times: 
" The Scotch national character originated in 
many circumstances ; first of all, in the Saxon 
stuff there was to work on ; but next, and beyond 



142 Providential Epochs. 

all else except that, in the Presbyterian gospel 
of John Knox." 

With lyUther and Melanchthon in Germany, 
Zwingli, CEcolampadius, Farel, and Calvin in 
Switzerland, and Knox in Scotland, England 
was moving grandly forward under the influence 
of Cranmer, Tyndale, Coverdale, Ridley, and 
Latimer, all of whom, excepting Coverdale, suf- 
fered death for the cause. 

There had gone one man before them — John 
Wyclif, " the morning-star of the Reformation." 
He died one hundred years before Luther was 
born, and, like Savonarola in Italy and Huss in 
Bohemia, did a preparatory work which made 
possible the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. 

While on many of the minor questions in- 
volved in those Reformation controversies, the 
various countries engaged in the general move- 
ment and the great leaders could not always 
agree, nevertheless one high and mighty purpose 
actuated all alike — the purpose to break the ec- 
clesiastical thralldom of Rome, and restore to the 
people and the nations a simple. Scriptural, and 
uncorrupted Christianity. If neither the Swiss 
nor the English reformers could accept without 
some serious modifications all the dogmatic de- 



The Reformation. 143 

liverances of Luther, and if the German re- 
former, in his doctrinal controversies, lost pa- 
tience and temper in his treatment of his more 
liberal and independent coadjutors, there was, 
notwithstanding, more agreement than differ- 
ence; and, in spite of differences, the one, central, 
divine thought which nnited them conquered 
gloriously, and Europe was free. 

The Reformation had more than a religious 
significance. The intellectual and political world, 
down to this hour, are indebted to Luther and 
his coadjutors for liberty of thought, revival of 
literature and science, and the widespread sen- 
timent and laws of freedom by which the fore- 
most nations of Christendom are governed. The 
fountain-head of the noble streams of modern 
literature was Luther's translation of the Bible. 
It created a literary German. The language 
from that time ceased to be a medley of dialects, 
and became one vigorous, universal tongue. That 
unifying of the German language meant the na- 
tional unity of the German peoples. Luther's 
translation of the Bible, begun while the reformer 
was providentially secreted a prisoner in the 
Castle of Wartburg, became the source of mod- 
ern German greatness in morals, literature, 
and arms. 



f44 Providential Epochs. 

If we go to England, and study the influence 
of Tyndale's and Cranmer's translations of the 
Scriptures, we may say almost as much of them 
as has been said of Luther's Bible. Giving 
Wyclif and Chaucer all the credit that is their 
due, we can not fail to notice that English lit- 
erature revived and came to its highest perfec- 
tion under the influence of these new translations 
of the Word of God. To these, as much as to 
any other influence, is due the Elizabethan 
strength and purity of the English language, 
which made possible the beauty of Shakespeare's 
song and the matchless grace and vigor of King 
James's version of the Bible. 

The influence which the Reformation exerted 
on literature, manners, science, art, and govern- 
ment may be traced in the progressive develop- 
ment of the nations which have welcomed the 
movement. Those nations lead the world in 
civilization to-day, and they command the future. 

Step by step, the power of Rome was broken, 
and the nations advanced to a new freedom, to a 
new religious and intellectual life. Out of the 
Reformation rose Protestantism, which held as a 
precious jewel the simple. Scriptural, and ra- 
tional faith once delivered to the saints. It is 
the Christian religion in its purity, stripped of 



The REFOkMATiON. 145 

those errors and superstitions which attached 
themselves to the Church during the Dark Ages. 
The Reformation's appeal was to the Scrip- 
tures, and, logically. Protestantism came to stand 
for a Scriptural Christianity. Having shaken 
off the yoke of papal authority and dictation, 
she enjoys and teaches that freedom of thought 
and right of individual judgment which acknowl- 
edge no limitations or restraints except those 
which truth itself prescribes. Her creed is un- 
incumbered by those vain traditions and irra- 
tional superstitions which fastened themselves 
upon the Church of the Dark Ages and rendered 
it one of the most stubborn obstacles to the 
progress of the simple, rational, and Scriptural 
religion of Jesus Christ. It is one of the mys- 
teries of human credulity how the errors orig- 
inating in the very darkness of the Dark Ages 
have survived so many centuries, and are but 
slowly disappearing, even in the light of this 
liberal and thoughtful age. It seems incredible 
that there are still to be found thousands who 
are ignorant and superstitious enough to believe 
in the existence and in the healing virtues of 
such so-called sacred relics as portions of the 
cross on which the Savior was crucified, thorns 
from the crown which was plaited for his brow, 



146 Providential Epochs. 

and even the seamless robe for which the sol- 
diers gambled beneath the cross ! Jnst as in- 
credible does it seem that any rational beings 
can still accept the doctrines of transubstantia- 
tion, of the immaculate conception, prayers to 
saints, prayers for the dead, papal infallibility, 
and purgatory, and to hold as Scriptural, or 
even rational, such institutions as indulgences, 
the confessional, the nunnery, the order of priest- 
hood, and the ofhce and authority of vicegerent 
of Jesus Christ, supreme pontiff, pope. Against 
this entire catalogue of irrational, unscriptural, 
and demoralizing errors, our rational and Scrip- 
tural Protestantism takes its invincible stand. 
In denying these absurdities, and in setting forth 
the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, unadulterated 
with the idle traditions invented by ignorance 
and superstition, Protestantism has made its 
wonderful progress and achieved its splendid tri- 
umphs. For the religious progress of the world 
during the last four hundred years, nearly, the 
credit is due to the Reformation and the Prot- 
estantism which embodied the Reformation spirit. 
In the very position which Protestantism as- 
sumed at its origin there was the prophecy of its 
attitude on every important religious question of 
the future. As in the sixteenth century it re- 



The Reformation. 147 

pudiated the authority of mere traditions, so in 
this nineteenth century it is pledged by all its 
glorious past to submit every doctrinal question 
to a Scriptural test, and every question of Bib- 
lical interpretation to a scientific and historical 
method of investigation. It was a disregard for 
and violation of these principles that plunged 
the Church into the doctrinal and ecclesiastical 
errors which made the Reformation necessary 
and inevitable. Only by a strict regard for these 
methods in the interpretation of the Bible, in 
the formulation of creeds, and in the propagation 
of doctrines, will Protestantism be able to hold 
and advance in the evangelization of the world 
with the simple and saving truths of the gospel. 
Protestantism in its very genius stands for 
another great principle ; viz., the political inde- 
pendence of the Church and the ecclesiastical 
independence of the State. This may not have 
been in the minds of the original reformers, but 
it was in the very genius of the Reformation. 
They sowed for a wider, richer harvest than they 
knew, those first brave planters of freedom's 
heavenly seed. German Protestantism and Eng- 
lish Protestantism insisted as stoutly upon the 
union of the Church and State as did ever Ro- 
nianism. But there was to come a great liberal- 



I' 48 Providential Epochs. 

izing of sociology ; political government was to 
grow into a nobler freedom ; the rights of man 
were to find a more generous and righteous rec- 
ognition ; the world was to demonstrate the prac- 
ticability of democracy, and assert the divine 
right of the people in self-government. The 
Protestant form of Christianity alone was adapted 
to humanity for the experience of such a devel- 
opment in the enjoyment of freedom. Free or 
self-government alone was adapted to the high- 
est possible development of Protestant Chris- 
tianity in the experience and life of man. The 
most benign influence of Christianity must come 
to the State through a free Church, and the most 
benign influence of free government must come 
to the people and to the Church through the non- 
ecclesiastical administration of, and a non-eccle- 
siastical interference with, the administration of 
that government. For these reasons. Protestant- 
ism seems singularly well fitted for our American 
civilization, and our free political institutions 
seem to favor the growth of this simple and sin- 
cere form of Christianity. Protestantism has 
been so intimately associated with the develop- 
ment of freedom, science, and liberal education 
that all these related and kindred elements of 
our best modern civilization would seem to have 



The Reformation. 149 

been born at the same time. There can be no 
true philosophy of modern history which does 
not find the common origin of freedom, science, 
common-school education, and Protestantism in 
the Reformation. The old religious system, 
against which the advanced thought and con- 
science of the sixteenth century were a protest, 
has been the enemy of freedom, science, and 
popular education. Romanism, as an ecclesias- 
tical institution, is monarchical, and hence inim- 
ical to political freedom. With the pope assum- 
ing the old Roman imperial title of " Pontifex 
Maximus," cardinals dubbed "princes," and 
bishops " lords," the Roman Catholic hierarchy 
becomes a political establishment of the strictest 
monarchical, if not oligarchal, type ; and any po- 
litical government which submits to its author- 
ity, acknowledging its temporal power, can be no 
more than an "imperium in imperio," whether 
it claims to be a democracy, a republic, or a 
monarchy. The very destiny of democracy de- 
pended upon the issue of the Reformation. The 
possibility of republican self-government lay in 
the triumph of that mighty protest. Without 
the Reformation and a Protestantism, there had 
been no such free government as the United 
States of America. 



I50 Providential Epochs. 

Science is the eternal foe of superstition. In 
its white light error and imposition must sooner 
or later be exposed. How, then, can Dark-Age 
errors long survive the universal spread of sci- 
ence? How can they maintain their hold upon 
the popular mind against the criticism and the 
very laughter of scientifically enlightened rea- 
son? It is noticeable that where science is 
most fully developed and most universally dif- 
fused among the people, there theological ab- 
surdities are least successfully propagated. They 
flourish only where the people are still deprived 
of the light of science. Marble statues of the 
Virgin do not weep in America, nor do splinters 
of the true cross heal. It is repugnant to an 
American's sense of manly freedom to kiss the 
foot of Peter, while it is becoming more and more 
a problem with Romanism as to how it shall 
succeed in driving a high-minded, independent 
American citizen into the confessional, to sur- 
render his very conscience, judgment, reason, 
and manhood to a priest. Protestantism stands 
for an independent manhood, for free conscience 
and the right of personal judgment, for the au- 
thority of the Scriptures, the enlightenment of 
science, the power of knowledge, and the su- 
premacy of the people. 



The Reformation. 151 

Education, in the highest sense, is a Protest- 
ant idea. It insists upon the enlightenment 
of the masses. It claims that mankind has a 
right to all truth, and it argues that a religion 
which will not survive the universal and liberal 
education of the people is false. If the stars 
are against our creeds, so much the worse for 
our creeds. That is the truth-loving attitude 
of Protestantism. It asks, not that a priest 
shall stand at the door of the human mind to 
exclude every truth of science, government, so- 
ciology, history, or religion which may conflict 
with a superstition or a vain tradition of the 
Church, but it confidently holds that all truths 
are in harmony, and as the truths of science 
can not conflict with the truths of religion, 
there can no danger come to a man's spiritual 
life by a full and universal knowledge of all 
truths. "Let there be light!" is the glorious 
cry of enlightened Protestantism, which courts 
rather than shuns the scrutiny of science and 
reason. "Let there be light!" exclaims a Scrip- 
tural Protestantism, which believes in the high- 
est possible education of the masses. "Let 
there be light!" commands a progressive ra- 
tional Protestantism, which has planted the 
common schools of Germany, England, and 



152 Providential Epochs. 

America, and has established the most liberal, 
thorough, and extensive colleges and universi- 
ties, which diffuse knowledge and learning into 
the civilization of this nineteenth century. 
There is no question in honest, thoughtful 
minds that Protestantism is the friend and 
guardian of the public-school system, whether 
in Germany, England, Canada, Australia, or the 
United States. Nor is there any question that 
Protestant universities offer the most liberal, 
thorough, and scientific education of any uni- 
versities in the world. Furthermore, the most 
reliable statistics prove that Protestant Chris- 
tian countries invariably have a lower percent- 
age of illiteracy than any other countries, what- 
ever faith may predominate. Protestantism has 
changed the educational methods of the civil- 
ized world, and substituted science, history, and 
political ethics for the rhetoric, theology, and 
metaphysics of the old scholasticism. Thus 
Protestant Christianity is pledged in its genius 
and in its history to the defense and advance- 
ment of universal freedom, universal knowledge, 
and universal righteousness. 

The richest, most benign results of the Ref- 
ormation are developing in this age. As the 
future belongs to universal knowledge and to 



The Reformation. 153 

law-protected liberty, so does it belong to a 
science-loving, liberty-loving. Scriptural Chris- 
tianity. The Reformation solved the destinies 
of nations, and shaped the course of all future 
histories. The ages, as they come and pass, will 
to the end of time be grateful debtors to the 
sixteenth century, to the great events and 
mighty men of that providential epoch of the 
Reformation. 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



III. 

The Discovery of America. 



155 



III. 

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

THE fifteenth century was the gateway 
through which Europe exultingly passed 
from the gloomy age of superstition to the 
golden age of reason. It was splendid with 
important events and with history-making men. 
New life and impulse came to every department 
of human thought and enterprise. A study of 
the Renaissance is generally confined to a con- 
sideration of the revival of letters or of art; 
but in a more general survey it will appear 
that the epoch was characterized by a uni- 
versal quickening of humanity, by a revival of 
intellect, and of every element in civilization 
that finds its life and progressive impulse in 
enlightened thought and genius. Hence art, 
science, literature, invention, religion, commerce, 
navigation, exploration, and discovery made glo- 
rious an age, in comparison with which the age 
of Augustus, Pericles, or of Solomon is histor- 
ically insignificant. 

The century stretching from 1425 to 1525 
was adorned by many of the greatest men of 

157 



158 Providential Epochs. 

modern times. It may be doubted whether any 
other one century of the Christian era, except 
the first, has crowded upon its stage of impor- 
tant historic action a greater number of first- 
order geniuses, or a greater number of men 
whose individual and combined power will be 
felt by humanity forever. 

Christopher Columbus was born, we know 
not exactly when, but doubtless between 1435 
and 1445. Authorities differ on the subject, 
and even dated documents are confusing to the 
patient investigators. Enough to know, Co- 
lumbus was a child of the Renaissance, and he 
embodied in his adventurous character its pro- 
gressive spirit. 

He stood high-browed among the tallest 
men of modern years, that haughty-eyed, fair- 
haired Genoese. He lived in that bright morn- 
ing-time which saw a race of geniuses spring 
forth to rescue science, art, and letters from 
their long Dark- Age imprisonment, and to proph- 
esy anew the larger liberties of men. Columbus 
might have gazed with Copernicus into the 
heavenly mysteries and splendors, or listened to 
the epic-song of Ariosto; he might have heard 
the stormy eloquence of Savonarola, watched 
the chisel-strokes of Angelo, or seen the magic 



The Discovery of America. 159 

pencil of the divine Raphael paint the sweet 
immortality of his Madonnas; he might have 
learned from Gutenberg's own lips how his 
great brain achieved the printing-press, or have 
seen Caxton give England its first printed 
book; he might have smiled at the subtle wit 
and cutting satire of Erasmus, or have bowed 
in reverence to hear the celestial language 
of aKempis; he might have looked into the 
eyes of a Luther or Sir Thomas More, and held 
converse with Vasco da Gama and Cabot, with 
Cortez, Pizarro, and Ponce de Leon. There were 
giants in those days. And in their midst 
stood Columbus, if not so universal a genius as 
Angelo, nor so profound and philosophical a 
scholar as Erasmus, nor so zealous a religionist 
as Luther, yet above them all he towered as the 
greatest history-making personality of the age — 
the man whose high and glorious destiny it was 
to open a new world to human enterprise and a 
new era to civilization. 

A glance at the leading European nations at 
the time when the intellectual revival reaches 
them, will discover that in each nation it repre- 
sents a distinct and characteristic phase. 

In Italy thought turns to art, in Germany to 
religion, in England to literature, in Spain to 



i6o Providential Epochs, 

exploration and discovery. In Italy the ques- 
tion is: "What new painting?" In Germany: 
"What new theology?" In England: "What 
new poem?" In Spain: "What new land?" As 
a result, the very youth of a country became im- 
bued with an ambition to excel in that which 
was most enthusiastically applauded in their na- 
tive land. More than this, each city had its own 
phase of intellectual awakening, and the boys 
caught the spirit, not only of their age, but of 
their city. The youth of Florence and Rome 
had the art ambition; but the youth of Venice, 
Genoa, Palos, and Barcelona were eager to roam 
the seas, or travel through new lands, and emu- 
late the adventurous Marco Polo. 

Columbus was born in Genoa, or in its vicin- 
ity. The reduced circumstances of his father, 
an obscure wool-comber, necessitated his leav- 
ing school at an early age, though tradition 
places him for a short time in the University of 
Pavia. From childhood he manifested a re- 
markable genius for mathematics, became an 
expert penman and draughtsman, and devoted 
himself to making maps. He came endowed 
with as extraordinary a genius for everything per- 
taining to navigation and exploration as Shake- 
speare had for poetry, Mozart for music, or 



The Discovery of America. i6i 

Angelo for art. On leaving school he took to 
sea, and for ten years or more endured the hard- 
ships and discipline of a common sailor. At 
about the age of thirty he appeared in Portugal, 
and later in Spain, ambitious to sail the seas on 
a higher mission than that of war or piracy, in 
which, it is claimed, he had been engaged. 
Though Columbus was born in Italy and in the 
maritime city of Genoa, he found that in Genoa, 
and even in Venice, the spirit of adventure and 
discovery was tame in comparison with the en- 
thusiasm that filled Spain and Portugal. While 
Italy was attracting from all nations those who 
would be artists, Spain and Portugal had a 
magnetic attraction for those of other lands who 
would be adventurers, navigators, and explorers. 
It is not a little remarkable that while the 
greatest explorers and discoverers of that age 
were Italians, they gave their services to other 
countries. Vespucius gave his services to Port- 
ugal, Cabot discovered North America for Eng- 
land, Verrazzano was in the service of Francis I 
of France, Columbus offered his service to John 
of Portugal, and then to Ferdinand and Isabella 
of Spain. 

It would seem from a letter quoted by his own 
son Ferdinand that he took to the sea at four- 



1 62 Providential Epochs. 

teen years of age, which, if true, would preclude 
the possibility of the Pavia University training. 
In the year 1501 he wrote to their Catholic 
majesties: "It is now forty years that I have 
been sailing to all those parts at present fre- 
quented." From this statement k may be de- 
duced that he was born about 1446-7. Never- 
theless there are other documentary evidences 
which argue an earlier birth by some years. 
The essential thing is that from earliest youth 
this Columbus was training himself, or was 
being trained, as it would seem providentially, 
for the grand enterprise which brought glory 
to his name and unmeasured blessing to man- 
kind. 

The fifteenth century finds the progressive 
portion of civilized humanity crowding its way 
to the western limits of Europe, to the shores 
of the dark, mysterious, unknown Atlantic. 
Berkeley had his eye on history and on the 
movements of races and the readjustments 0/ 
geographical limits from remote times when he 
wrote : 

" Westward the course of Empire takes its way." 

Civilized humanity a thousand years before 
Christ populated the banks of the Euphrates; in 



The Discovery of America. 163 

the time of Christ it was gathered along the 
eastern and northern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean ; at the end of the Dark Ages it was 
found crowding toward the Atlantic. There, in 
the time of Columbus, we find the progressive 
spirit standing tiptoe on the shores of Spain, 
Portugal, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, 
and Scandinavia, peering with an almost pro- 
phetic vision towards those burning sunsets which 
seemed like the glorified portals of some new 
and wonderful world. For three thousand his- 
toric years Providence had been pushing hu- 
manity toward that "continent of the future" 
which was long the dream of the prophet and 
inspiration of the poet, but was destined to be- 
come the boast and pride of history's noblest 
patriot. 

A new world was a necessity. The ambi- 
tion of man required it ; the expansion of the 
race needed it; the growth of commerce called 
for it ; the awakening of new thought and 
genius demanded it ; the progress of freedom 
and the development of science insisted upon it; 
the advancing sweep and sway of Christian 
ideas necessitated a new world. Never before 
in the history of the race had there been so im- 
perative a demand. We do not speak of the 



164 Providential Epochs. 

ambition of an Alexander or of a Caesar, which 
sighed for new worlds to conquer, but of the 
legitimate needs of a growing, advancing hu- 
manity. Never before in the history of science, 
industry, liberty, and religion had there been 
such an imperative moral and intellectual de- 
mand for a great, new, virgin world. The sal- 
vation of the race seemed to depend upon its 
discovery. There had been a self-destruction of 
race and nationalities ; there had been universal 
bankruptcy ; there had been a stagnation of 
civilization ; there had been a repetition of the 
Dark Ages, without the discovery of a new 
world. The old world was indeed old ; in many 
cases its very soils were worn out, its resources 
exhausted, and its peoples beggared. There 
proved also to be in the hearts of men a will- 
ingness and eagerness to seek the wider field 
and greater opportunity. Moreover, conscience, 
reason, and conviction, the manhood of the race, 
were becoming restless under the yoke of polit- 
ical and theological despotism. Democracy was 
in the air, whether men called it by that name or 
not. Liberty, political and religious liberty, was 
instilling itself into the hearts of the people and 
insisting upon an exodus out of the Egypt of the 
old into the Caanan of a new order of things, 



The Discovery of America. 165 

which new order of things called for a new 
world. 

There were hints coming to the scientific and 
adventurous to the effect that other worlds ex- 
isted. They had come down from the ancients. 
Scholars thought they found more than fiction in 
Plato's Atlantis ; and Solon seemed to entertain 
notions of other worlds, which he had learned 
from the Egyptians. 

In the "Timseus" of Plato we have the fol- 
lowing narrative from Critias, told to Socrates : 

"Many great and wonderful deeds are re- 
corded of your State in our histories. But one of 
them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor; 
for these histories tell of a mighty power 
which, unprovoked, made an expedition against 
the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your 
city put an end. This power came forth out of 
the Atlantic Ocean ; for in those days the Atlan- 
tic was navigable, and there was an island situ- 
ated in front of the straits which are by you 
called the Pillars of Hercules ; the island was 
larger than Libya and Asia put together, and 
was the way to other islands, and from those 
you might pass to the whole of the opposite 
continent, which surrounded the true ocean ; for 
this sea, which is within the straits of Hercules, 



1 66 Providential Epochs. 

is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance ; but 
that other is a real sea, and the surrounding 
land may be most truly called a boundless conti- 
nent. Now, in this island of Atlantis there 
was a great and wonderful empire, which had 
rule over the whole island and several others, 
and over parts of the continent ; and, further- 
more, the men of Atlantis had subjected the 
parts of Libya within the columns of Hercules 
as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhe- 
nia. This vast power, gathered into one, en- 
deavored to subdue at a blow our country and 
yours, and the whole of the region within the 
straits ; and then your country shone forth in 
the excellence of her virtue and strength among 
all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage 
and military skill, and was the leader of the 
Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, 
being compelled to stand alone, after having 
undergone the very extremity of danger, she de- 
feated and triumphed over the invaders, and 
preserved from slavery those who were not yet 
subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest 
of us who dwell within the Pillars. But afterward 
there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, 
and in a single day and night of misfortune all 
your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, 



The Discovery of America. 167 

and the Island of Alantis in like manner disap- 
peared in the depths of the sea. For which 
reason the sea in those parts is impassable and 
impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in 
the way; and this was caused by the subsidence 
of the island. I have told you briefly, Socrates, 
what the aged Critias heard from Solon and re- 
lated to us." 

Professor Jowett, from whose translation this 
story is extracted, admits that this "may have 
contributed indirectly to the discovery of Amer- 
ica." 

According to Strabo, the geographer of the 
Augustan Age, Eratosthenes argued that if the 
earth was spheroidal, it was inhabited in all 
parts. There could be very little, if any doubt 
as to the meaning of Seneca, who wrote fifteen 
centuries before the time of Columbus: 

" In after years shall ages come 
When the ocean shall unloose the bands 
Of things, and show vast, ample lands ; 
New worlds by seamen shall be found, 
Nor Thule be the utmost bound." 

Lord Bacon called this a prophecy of the dis- 
covery of America. The songs of the early Ital- 
ian poets contain thought visions of new worlds. 
Petrarch, writing there one hundred and fifty 



i68 Providential Epochs. 

years before Columbus sailed into the West, 
sang of 

" The daylight hastening with winged steps 
Perchance to gladden the expectant eyes 
Of far-ofT nations in a world remote." 

Pulci, a favorite with Lorenzo de' Medici, and 
one of the most brilliant minds that adorned the 
Renaissance, wrote, even before the wondrous 
dream had charmed the imagination of Columbus, 
in strains like these: 

" Men shall descry another hemisphere, 
Since to one common center all things tend ; 
So earth, by curious mystery divine 
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres. 
At our Antipodes are cities, States, 
And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore. 
But, see, the sun speeds on his western path 
To glad the nations with expected light." 

It would seem from the statements of Ferdi- 
nand Columbus, that his father had carefully 
studied the theories of Ptolemy, Marcius, Strabo, 
Pliny, Seneca, and Aristotle, while undoubtedly, 
in an age of Platonic revival, he must have been 
as familiar with the story of Atlantis, as with 
the verses of Pulci and of Petrarch. But doubt- 
less the cosmographer and explorer had greater 
influence in stimulating the spirit of discovery, 
than the poet and philosopher. Two great 



The Discovery of America. 169 

thoughts had taken possession of the most ad- 
vanced minds ; namely, " India," and " the possi- 
bility of reaching it by sailing west." Marco 
Polo, two centuries before, had traveled through 
India and China, and had brought back such 
material evidences and such glowing descrip- 
tions of Eastern wealth and splendor, that 
Europe was amazed and filled with ambition to 
open up commercial communication with lands 
opiilent in spices, pearls, and gold. The won- 
derful stories of Marco Polo were discussed by 
the learned, and told with added embellishments 
at the humblest firesides. 

The great traveler had described Lochac, 
Karazen, Thebeth, Ripangu, and Java, where 
" gold is abundant to a degree scarcely credible;" 
where "in the river is found gold-dust in very 
large quantities;" where "gold is found in the 
rivers in small particles and in lumps, and there are 
veins of it in the mountains;" where " they have 
gold in greatest abundance, its source being in- 
exhaustible;" where "it is impossible to estimate 
the value of the gold and other articles found;" 
and where " the quantity of gold collected ex- 
ceeds all calculations and belief." With the 
same extravagance Marco Polo had told of coun- 
tries where "are found abundance of pearls; so 



170 Providential Epochs. 

great indeed is the quantity, that if his majesty 
permitted every individual to search for them, 
their vahie would become trifling;" where "are 
pearls in large quantities of a pink color, round 
in shape, and of great size;" where "in the 
mountains diamonds are found. During the 
rainy season the water descends in violent tor- 
rents amongst the rocks and caverns, and when 
these have subsided, the people go to search for 
diamonds in the beds of the rivers, where the)' 
find many." The famous traveler further de- 
scribed countries where "more beautiful and 
valuable rubies are found than in any other part 
of the world, and likewise sapphires, topazes, 
amethysts, garnets, and man\- other precious and 
costly stones. The king is reported to possess 
the grandest ruby that e\er was seen, being a 
span in length, and the thickness of a man's 
arm, brilliant beyond description, and without a 
single flaw. It has the appearance of a glowing 
fire, and upon the whole is .so valuable that no 
estimation can be made of its worth in money ;" 
where " the sovereign's palace is of extraordinary 
richness. The entire roof is covered with a 
plating of gold, in the same manner as we cover 
our houses, or more properly churches, with lead. 
The ceilings of the halls are of the same precious 



The Discovery of America. 171 

metal ; many of the apartments have small tables 
of pure gold considerably thick, and the windows 
have golden ornaments. So vast, indeed, are the 
riches of the palace, that it is impossible to con- 
vey an idea of them." 

The youth of that age fed on these mar\'elous 
descriptions of Oriental glory until their imagi- 
nations were inflamed. Columbus was inspired 
bv the oft-recited adventures of INIarco Polo, as 
was Vasco da Gama later on. And now, as Polo 
had found this rich and golden country, and the 
Portuguese were contemplating seeking it anew 
by way of Good Hope, Columbus, in his splendid 
ambition, would find India by sailing west. With 
him the two great thoughts were, *' India " and 
"the sphericity of the earth." The "golden 
land " was never absent from his waking thoughts, 
nor from his pleasant dreams. That the earth 
was round, to his mind, was scientifically settled, 
and that the circumnavigation of the globe was 
possible, he did not question. Hence India could 
be reached by sailing west, and more quickly, he 
imagined, than overland, or by way of Good 
Hope. 

Columbus is not to be credited with original- 
ity in his glowing notions of India, nor in his be- 
lief in the sphericity of the earth, nor in his con- 



172 Providential Epochs. 

viction that India could be reached by sailing 
west. The glories of India had come from the 
imagination of Marco Polo. The doctrine that 
the earth was round had come from the philoso- 
phy of many. It may be traced back to Pliny 
and Strabo ; back to Crates, Hipparchus, and 
Eratosthenes ; back to Aristotle and Plato ; yes 
back to the beginning of science and philosophy. 

PHny, born 23 A. D., says of the earth: 
" Every one agrees that it has the most perfect 
figure. We always speak of the ball of the 
earth, and we admit it to be a globe bounded by 
the poles. It has not, indeed, the form of an abso- 
lute sphere from the number of lofty moimtains 
and flat plains ; but, if the termination of the lines 
be bounded by a curve, this would compose a per- 
fect sphere." 

Strabo, born about 62 B. C, writes : " We 
have now been tracing upon a spherical surface 
the region which we state to be occupied by the 
habitable earth, and whoever would represent 
the real earth as near as possible by artificial 
means, should make a globe like that of Crates, 
and upon this describe the quadrilateral within 
which his chart of geography is to be placed." 
Eratosthenes lived about 275 B. C, and was the 
first to give a scientific estimate of the earth's 



The Discovery of America. 173 

dimensions. Strabo says : " Eratosthenes goes 
into a description of the figure of the earth 
He proceeds to tell us that the earth is spher- 
ical," etc. 

Plato, born 427 B. C, puts these words into 
a discussion in his " Phaedo :" " My conviction is, 
that the earth is a round body in the center of 
the heavens." In " Timceus " he says : " And he 
[the Creator] gave to the world the figure which 
was suitable and also natural. . . . Where- 
fore he made the world in the form of a globe, 
round as from a lathe, having its extremes in 
every direction equidistant from the center." 

But we shall have to seek a more remote origin 
for the theory of the earth's sphericity. The 
Pythagoreans, a century before Plato's time, if not 
the Phenician geographers and Egyptian astrono- 
mers antedating Moses, had mathematical reasons 
for believing the earth was spherical in figure. 
Whatever may have been the vulgar notion of 
the ignorant people and bigoted priests, the 
scholarship of the world had not lost faith in that 
doctrine from the days of the first mathemati- 
cians to the days of Columbus. 

Even the circumnavigation of the globe had 
been attempted long before. Strabo writes : 
" Those who have returned from an attempt to 



174 Providential Epochs. 

circumnavigate the earth, do not say they 
have been prevented from continuing their voy- 
age by any opposing continent — for the sea re- 
mained perfectly open — but through want of res- 
olution and the scarcity of provision." Again 
Strabo says : " If the extent of the Atlantic 
Ocean were not an obstacle, we might easily 
pass from Iberia to India." As to whether there 
were other habitable portions of the earth, the 
same author says: " It is quite possible that in 
the temperate zone there may be two, or even 
more, habitable earths, especially near the circle 
of latitude which is drawn through Athens and 
the Atlantic Ocean." But even more clearly 
does the ancient geographer express himself 
when he writes : "It belongs to another science 
to give an exact description of the whole earth, 
and of the vertebra of either zone, and as to 
whether the vertebra in the opposite quarter of 
the earth is inhabitable. That such is the case 
is most probable, yet not that it is inhabited by 
the same race of men that dwell with us. And 
it must therefore be regarded as another habit- 
able earth." 

The revival of letters brought from their long 
obscuritv these theories of the ancient geog- 



The Discovery of America. 175 

raphers, with which Columbus became famiHar 
and by which he was inspired. 

At this time no science was developing more 
rapidly than cosmography, the science of the 
description of the world. Toscanelli, of Flor- 
ence, was at the head of this important branch 
of science, and, knowing nothing of a continent 
intervening between Western Europe and East- 
ern Asia, he prepared a map, representing a 
spherical earth with China, India, and the Isl- 
ands, and other countries described by Marco 
Polo, lying west of Europe at a distance of about 
three thousand miles. Little did he dream that 
at just about that distance existed a new world, 
and that India was three times as far away. 
While the sphericity of the earth was believed 
in, its size was greatU' underestimated, hence 
Toscanelli's supposition that India was but three 
thousand miles west. Influenced very largeh' 
by the map and by personal conference with 
Toscanelli, Columbus determined to seek India 
by a western route. It is also claimed that while 
visiting Scandinavia and Iceland, Columbus ob- 
tained some knowledge of Icelandic sagas which 
contained vague intimations that a country far 
off to the southwest of Iceland, called Winland 



176 Providential Epochs. 

or Vinland, had been discovered by the North- 
men, centuries before. There seems to be au- 
thentic evidence that Columbus visited Iceland 
about the year 1477. In Ferdinand's biography 
of his father this memorandum is quoted : "In 
February, 1477, I sailed one hundred leagues 
beyond Thule, Iceland." 

He was then full of his project, and doubtless 
made inquiries of the people who were in com- 
munication with the Greenlanders still farther 
west as to the history of any earlier westward 
explorations. It can not be supposed that the 
old tradition of Lief Ericson's discovery of Vin- 
land was still fresh in the common Icelandic 
mind ; it was doubtless buried in the old and 
musty manuscripts, and forgotten by the people, 
if it had ever been one of the popular traditions. 
Recent investigations have brought this old tra- 
dition into considerable prominence and given it 
the semblance of historic credibility. 

It is very evident that Columbus sought and 
made use of all the information obtainable, and 
that he ran down ever}- report, tradition, theory, 
even myth, that promised to give him light and 
encouragement. 

• Herrera, the Spanish historian, tells us "many 
things concurred to encourage Columbus to that 



The Discovery of America. i-j-j 

mighty enterprise, among which was tTiat of dis- 
coursing with those who used to sail westward." 
Martin Vicente assured him that, being once four 
hundred and fifty leagues to the westward of 
Cape St. Vincent, he took up a piece of wood, 
artificially wrought, and as supposed, not with' 
iron ; whence the wand having been many days 
at west, he inferred that the piece of wood must 
come from some island. Peter Correa, who had 
married Columbus's wife's sister, assured him 
that in the island of Puerto Santo, he had seen 
another piece of wood, brought by the same 
winds, and wrought after that manner ; as also 
canes of such a thickness, that every joint would 
contain above a gallon of liquor. Columbus 
himself said he had heard the King of Portugal 
affirm the same in discourse upon such affairs, 
and that he had those canes, which he ordered 
to be shown him, and he concluded to have 
been driven by the wind ; wherein he was con- 
firmed by Ptolemy, who, in his first book and 
seventeenth chapter of his Cosmography, says: 
"There are such canes in India." 

The historian again affirms that some inhab- 
itants of the Islands Azores further assured him 
(Columbus) that when the wind blew hard at 
west and northwest, the sea threw up pine-trees 



178 Providential Epochs. 

on the east coast of the islands of Graciosa and 
Fayal, whereas those islands prodiice none of 
that sort. The sea also cast np two dead bodies 
on the island Flores, whose faces seemed to be 
very broad, and their features different from the 
'Christians. Much more information of like char- 
acter was obtained by Columbus, all of which 
confirmed him in his belief and purpose. 

Certain writers have sought to disparage the 
achievements of Columbus by endeavoring to 
show that the Northmen had found America five 
hundred years before the illustrious Genoese, and 
that he obtained the knowledge which inspired 
his voyage of discovery from the semi-theological 
literature of the Scandinavians. Be this as it 
may — for the discussions of these points have not 
reached, nor are they likely to reach, an end for 
some time to come — certain it is that the more 
profoundly Columbus studied the matter, and the 
wider his observations and investigations ex- 
tended, the warmer became his enthusiasm — an 
enthusiasm little short of monomania, if not akin 
to inspiration. 

Attempts to belittle the achievements of Co- 
lumbus on the ground that he worked on the in- 
formation which he had secured from others, are 
puerile, if not contemptible. Did ever general 



The Discovery of America. 179 

win a great victory, statesman write a great law, 
artist paint a great picture, astronomer make a 
great discovery without the aid of information 
obtained from the work of predecessors ? Were 
even Julius Csesar, iVlfred the Great, Raphael, 
Galileo, Shakespeare, Washington, so great and 
original as not to have been indebted to those 
who had preceded them, and to those who aided 
the development of their power ? One element 
of greatness which asserted itself in Columbus was 
the remarkable ability or genius which he pos- 
sessed for gathering up the facts, theories, and 
reports which were afloat, and making such use 
of them as no other man of his age had the wit 
to do. He was a profound student of the subject 
which had become the controlling force of his 
life. He scientifically collected all obtainable 
data, reasoning from those data with the mas- 
tery of a logician. He knew all that was then 
knowable on the subjects of navigation, explora- 
tion, and cosmography. And he put his faith, 
courage, and purpose sublime to the noble task 
of working out of his theories, information, and 
almost prophetic instincts, a grand practical result. 
Herein we see the workings of a master mind. 
The very arguments used by the enemies of his 
renown to disparage his greatness and belittle his 



i8o Providential Epochs. 

achievements, must only confirm the unprejudiced 
student in his admiration for the power, ability, 
and genius of Columbus. 

Against all these unreasonable charges, and 
the spirit which manifestly inspires them, set the 
frank acknowledgment of Columbus himself in 
which he claims to have gathered his information 
from many sources. He writes : "I have dealt 
and conversed with wise people, as well clergy 
as laity — Latins, Greeks, Indians, and Moors, 
and many other of other sects ; and our Lord has 
been favorable to this my inclination, and I have 
received of him the spirit of understanding. He 
has made me very skillful in navigation, know- 
ing enough in astrology, and so in geometry and 
arithmetic. God has given me a genius and 
hands apt to draw this globe, and on it the cities, 
rivers, islands, and ports, all in their proper 
places. During this time [forty years of study] I 
have seen, and endeavored to see, all books of 
cosmography, history, and philosophy, and of 
other sciences ; so that our Lord has sensibly 
opened my understanding to the end I may sail 
from hence to the Indies, and made me most 
willing to put this in execution." In all this 
acknowledgment of a providential guidance 
there is neither boasting nor fanaticism. He 



The Discovery of America. i8i 

does not claim any miracnlous endowment, but 
simply that God has bestowed upon him the 
genius of an explorer, and has opened the way 
for him to acquire the education, experience, and 
information necessary to the accomplishment of 
this great undertaking. He does not claim to 
have evolved all he knows about navigation and 
the existence of western worlds from his internal 
consciousness, nor from any special supernatural 
enlightenment, except as a providential leading 
may be so regarded. Again, we say his original- 
ity — the originality of which we and all ages to 
come will be the beneficiaries — was in his use of 
the information which he had patience and the 
genius to accumulate in his own brain, the cour- 
ageous, skillful application of the theories of ages 
and of the cosmographical science of his own 
time. 

In those days every great enterprise depended 
on the favor of princes and the patronage of 
kings. In Florence the revival of art is con- 
ditioned on the patronage of Lorenzo the Mag- 
nificent ; in Germany the Reformation depends 
upon the favor of the princes of the Empire; 
later on, in England, the progress of letters will 
be sustained and encoiiraged by the sympathy of 
Elizabeth and James. In Spain, Columbus will 



1 82 Providential Epochs. 

be found soliciting the patronage of Ferdinand 
and Isabella. He had sought in vain to kindle a 
sincere enthusiasm in the mind of John of Por- 
tugal, and he went with little encouragement to 
the court of Spain. It was the old, old story, 
and the new, new story — the struggle of genius 
and reason against prejudice and superstition, 
the opposition of an ignorant conservatism to the 
enterprise of science and progress. Columbus 
stood up to be laughed at as one of the vision- 
aries who come to disturb the repose of the 
world's serene stupidity. Navigators laughed, 
financiers laughed, princes laughed, and kings 
laughed. O these men that have been laughed 
at, how great they are to-day, how great they will 
ever be ! Galileo laughed at ! Palissy laughed 
at ! Watt, Stephenson, and Fulton laughed at ! 
Harvey laughed at ! Jenner laughed at ! Frank- 
lin, Morse, Field laughed at ' Columbus laughed 
at ! To have been universally laughed at were 
almost enough glory for any reformer or for any 
genius. In that laughter is often the prophecy 
of the immortal applause. 

But after the learned theologians, learned 
travelers, learned purse-holders, and other learned 
fools of Spain had w^orn out the patience of the 
proud and thoughtful Columbus, and he was 



The Discovery of America. 183 

about to shake the dust of Spain from his feet, 
and seek the more progressive and generous- 
minded England, where reigned a Henry VII, 
one arose to call him back, to befriend his cause, 
and to support his ambitious purpose with power. 
That one was Isabella, who said, in her high en- 
thusiasm: "I will pledge my jewels to raise the 
money needed." Whether the impulsive Isabella 
had already pledged those same jewels to sup- 
port the war against the Turks or not, whether 
she ever made just that verbal promise or not, 
certain it is, and no quibble over "oft-pawned 
jewels" can set the fact aside or tarnish the true 
glory of it, Isabella's patronage brought financial 
support to the enterprise of Columbus, and by 
the progressive spirit, by the intelligence, far- 
sightedness, and generosity of a woman, was the 
discovery of America made possible. The Pin- 
sons were doubtless led to support the enterprise 
with their wealth and services by the friendliness 
of Isabella ; yet little could that distinguished 
woman have known that she was contributing to 
the increase of woman's power, influence, and 
honor for all coming time by patronizing the 
great New-World discoverer. Little could she 
have imagined that through her favor a land 
would be discovered where, in time, there would 



1 84 Providential Epochs. 

appear the freest, most progressive, influential, 
and intelligent womanhood that had ever adorned 
the history of the race. There is much of justice 
and philosophy in Lamartine's well-known words : 
"There is a woman at the beginning of all great 
things." There was a woman at the beginning 
of the discovery of America. If we accept the 
story of the Scandinavian discovery, we must ac- 
cept with it the pleasant tradition that the first 
victory won on this continent by European arms 
was achieved through the bravery of a woman, 
who rebuked the cowardice of her countrymen 
as they fled before the Screelings, or Indians, 
and, grasping the spear of her fallen husband, 
turned upon the savages, rekindled the courage 
of the Norsemen, and led them to a final victory. 
It is also a tradition, which we are prone to ac- 
cept as history, that a woman first set foot upon 
Plymouth Rock. And, further, if Pocahontas 
saved the life of Captain John Smith, she saved 
the entire English colony from annihilation, and 
thus saved to Virginia a rich and eloquent blood. 
All these traditions have an added interest as 
they cluster around the historic fact that Isabella 
pledged the crown of Castile to the support of 
the Columbian expedition. And this great white 
fact somewhat relieves the name of Isabella of 



The Discovery of America. 185 

the dark, forbidding colors in which the just his- 
torian has been compelled to paint it. Hated 
though that name may be by Protestant Chris- 
tianity and by the Jewish race, let detestation 
ever give way to admiration when the mind re- 
calls the fact that Isabella took a noble part in 
the finding of this New World. 

Columbus was constituted high admiral in all 
the seas, islands, and continents which should be 
discovered ; and to Columbus and his heirs was 
granted a tenth of the profits of the productions 
and commerce of the countries which he should 
discover. 

On the evening of August 2, 1492, ever}^ 
preparation was completed. Three caravels — 
the Nina., the Pinta.^ and the Santa Maria — rode 
at anchor in the harbor of Palos. There were 
assembled about a hundred followers of Colum- 
bus eager for the voyage. Columbus had thought, 
studied, toiled, and prayed for twenty years to 
organize his expedition of discovery. He had 
grown prematurely gray and old with anxieties 
and sufferings. He had been rebuffed, insulted, 
ridiculed, beggared, but never conquered. Those 
years of preparation showed the metal of the 
man, and doubtless gave him just the stern dis- 
cipline which was necessary in the final effort 

13 



1 86 Providential Epochs. 

and issue of the bold and great-minded enter- 
prise. Difficulties which would have conquered 
and crushed a weaker man, only developed and 
gave discipline to the characteristic energies of 
this master-mind. 

Here is the history of the triumph of a great 
idea, and it reveals the character of a great 
thinker. Is it not so with all who shape our 
destiny for the brighter age? He had a great 
idea, that Paul, who gloried in nothing but the 
cross of Christ, and thereby revolutionized re- 
ligion, and grave the throne of the Csesars to the 
Nazarene. He had a great idea, that Gutenberg, 
who gave the world the printing-press, and revo- 
lutionized learning and literature. He had a 
great idea, that Galileo, who invented the tele- 
scope, and revolutionized the science of astron- 
omy. He had a great idea, that Franklin, Watt, 
Edison, who harnessed the steam and the light- 
ning, and revolutionized commerce, industry, 
and manufacturing. He had a great idea, that 
Columbus — with it he conquered all opposing 
difficulties; with it he conquered priests, schol- 
ars, financiers, and kings; with it he conquered 
hunger, ridicule, ignorance, jealousy; with it he 
conquered winds and waves and stars, and revo- 
lutionized civilization. It was a magnificent 



The Discovery of America. 187 

struggle. There proudly stood "one faith 
against a whole earth's unbelief;" one great 
idea against the whole earth's ignorance; one 
purpose bold against a whole earth's cowardice. 
How grand the victor and the victory! 

That last evening in Spain was spent by the 
rough and adventurous sailors in religious devo- 
tion ; for that entire band, headed by the tall, light- 
haired, gray-eyed, dignified, and serious Colum- 
bus, marched to the sanctuary of worship, took 
the holy sacrament, and supplicated the Divine 
blessing upon the expedition. 

Of the religious sincerity of Columbus there 
can be no reasonable question. But certain de- 
tractors from the great discoverer's well-earned 
fame have seen in his religious professions and 
fervor only the basest hypocrisy. His claims to 
Divine guidance, to providential protection, to 
spiritual and Scriptural enlightenment, in this 
great undertaking, have met with the jeers and 
ridicule of men who are not able to excuse the 
harmless superstitions of that age, much less to 
appreciate the lofty spirit, noble purpose, and ex- 
traordinary genius of such a man as Columbus. 
Every libel started by his envious rivals has been 
perpetuated, and almost magnified into history. 
Every fable hatched in the brain of jealousy has 



1 88 Providential Epochs. 

been kept alive, to diminish, if possible, the glory 
of his discovery. His every act of naval or mili- 
tary discipline has been distorted into a cruelty 
or a crime. But an age like this, which is called 
on to witness an attack upon Shakespeare's 
splendid fame, a disparagement of his genius, 
and a brazen denial of his literary identity, will 
not be surprised nor misled by those curiosities 
of literature, or rather those monstrosities of lit- 
erature, which assume the form of illogical, un- 
historical, and sensational attacks upon the char- 
acter and achievements of Columbus. It is no 
more just and reasonable to demand a nine- 
teenth-century conscience and enlightenment of 
Columbus than it is to demand them of Marco 
Polo, Dante, Raphael, Bacon, Shakespeare, or 
any other great genius of the distant past. Some 
critics insist upon measuring a Stanley in Dark- 
est Africa, a Napoleon or a Grant on the field of 
war, and a Columbus in his rough, dangerous 
voyages of discovery, by the nice standard that 
controls the deportment of a female seminary 
president, or the polite floor-walker of a millinery 
establishment. 

Columbus was not entirely free from the su- 
perstitions of his age. He was not wholly su- 
perior to all the roughening influences of adven- 



The Discovery of America. 189 

ture and of a seafaring life. He may have been 
endowed with an austere temper, with the un- 
yielding spirit of leadership, with an iinconquer- 
able will, with a glowing imagination, with a 
courage that never yielded to a threat nor faltered 
in the presence of danger; but could he have 
been a world-discovering Columbus without these 
masculine qualities? Yet, with all his haughti- 
ness of spirit, and with all his dauntless courage 
and perseverance, Columbus trusted in a ruling 
and overruling Providence, as all the greatest 
history-makers have done. It takes the minor 
poets and the minimum philosophers to deny a 
Providence ; but the epic-singers of the ages, the 
continent-explorers, the world-discoverers, the 
planet-finders, the nation-builders, and the nation- 
defenders recognize the existence of a Supreme 
Providence. Columbus believed, in the inner 
heart of himself, that he was an instrument in 
God's hands for the accomplishment of some 
vast human benefit. 

That solemn service of sacrament and prayer, 
in the humble monastery of Palos, was as devout 
and sincere as were ever sacrament and prayer. 

Here is a providential man, leading the world 
to a new providential epoch. Was he a saint, as 
Roselly de Lorgues would have us believe? Nc 



I90 Providential Epochs. 

certainly not. Nor was he a villain, as other ex- 
tremists would have us think. When we con- 
sider the moral lapses of even Noah, Abraham, 
Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon of sacred his- 
tory, it is not necessary for us to believe a man 
must be a faultless saint to be a providential 
man, used by Divine Wisdom for providential 
history. 

When it is remembered that the very proph- 
ecies of the Bible inspired Columbus to seek 
new worlds, that he had a desire to spread the 
gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, that 
this expedition of discovery was begun in prayer, 
that he was so strict in his observance of the 
Sabbath that he would never sail from port on 
that holy day, that he insisted upon the worship 
of God as one of the duties of the ship's com- 
pany; and when it is remembered that, after a 
voyage of seventy days on an unknown sea, the 
sight of the New World was greeted by the ex- 
ultant sailors with the "Te Deum," started on 
one ship, caught up by the second and the third, 
iintil, across the waves and beating against the 
new-found shores, rolled that magnificent thanks- 
giving to God; and when it is remembered that, 
in the midst of the astounded multitude of sav- 
age spectators, Columbus with his followers 



The Discovery of America. 191 

sprang upon the New World, planted the cross, 
and knelt in prayer; and when the history of 
America is remembered, from that great hour to 
this, — the Christian thinker sees in it all the 
hand of God, leading a devout genius to the ex- 
ecution of a divine plan, and furnishing the 
faith and reason of the race with another proof 
that — whether it be said of men or nations, of 
events or civilization — 

" There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Roui^h-hew them how we will." 

We do not stop to describe again the romance 
and poetry of that voyage of discovery. How 
the waves through all that long voyage made 
music on the keels of those venturesome ships; 
how favoring winds petted the sails, and the 
cloudless skies smiled their hope and courage ; 
how the hearts of the sailors rose and fell, and 
rose again, alternately controlled by hope and 
fear, courage and cowardice, triumph and de- 
spair ; how the determined Columbus, with art 
and artifice, promise and threat, austere silence 
and magnetic eloquence, preserved discipline, 
and kept the prows of the noble ships westward, 
until they anchored in sight of the verdant splen- 
dors of San Salvador, — must all be left to the 



192 Providential Epochs. 

orator and poet. Enough for us to consider that 
on the Friday morning of October 12th, the cry 
" land," the boom of cannon, and the singing of 
the "Te Deum" celebrated the discovery of a 
New World, the beginning of a new history. 
This, as Charles Sumner declared it to be, was 
" the greatest event of secular history." No 
event of modern times has proved to be of greater 
significance to the race than the opening of the 
long-locked gates of this magnificent Western 
Continent. One need not underestimate the im- 
portance of the moment when Alexander the 
Great hurled his javelin against the eastern bank 
of the Hellespont, and sprang full-armored to 
the shore to make the conquest of Asia ; nor of 
the historic moment when Caesar's standard- 
bearer leaped from the ship, and rushed through 
the waters to plant the Roman eagles on the 
shores of Britain; nor of that dramatic instant 
when William the Conqueror stumbled out upon 
the shores of England, grasped the sand from 
the beach, and cried: "I have taken seizure of 
this land!" One need underestimate the historic 
meaning of none of these great events, when he 
believes the supreme moment of secular history 
was when the dauntless sailor of Genoa sprang 



The Discovery of America. 193 

from his storm-beaten ship, and kissed the virgin 
soil of this great New World. 

Columbus, with all his dreams, with all his 
golden visions of imagination, never understood 
the real significance of his discovery. He had 
found India, as he supposed, and to the end of 
his life it never dawned upon his noble spirit 
that he had found a greater than India, a land 
compared with which the pearl-shored, gold- 
strewn Orient was infinitesimally insignificant, a 
land whose resources and glorious destiny the 
rich and opulent imagination of a Marco Polo 
would not seriously attempt to picture. 

It would have been far better for his peace of 
mind had Columbus found India, and succeeded 
in bringing its riches of gold, spices, and pre- 
cious stones into Spain. The discoverer labored 
under the false impression that he had found In- 
dia. Assuming that the lands described by 
Marco Polo had been reached by sailing west, he 
made those promises to his followers, and to his 
sovereigns which brought him his misfortunes. 
To fulfill his promise he was pushed to a zealous 
search and inquiry for gold. Modern critics of a 
certain school have based on that fact the accusa- 
tion that Columbus was a man of inordinate 



194 Providential Epochs. 

greed, whose god was gold, and whose ambition 
was low and sordid, rather than snch as animates 
a lofty mind and a trne benefactor of mankind. 
But the genuine critical spirit sees in Columbus, 
at this stage of his career, the victim of the sor- 
didness of his age. It was the greed of Spain, not 
of Columbus, that forced from the discoverer and 
his followers the ceaseless cry, "Gold, gold, gold!" 
It was Spain's greed that later on in her too will- 
ing servants, Cortez and Pizarro, despoiled the 
Montezumas of Mexico and the Incas of Peru of 
their barbaric wealth, and ruined ancient civili- 
zation to enrich the treasuries of Leon and 
Castile. 

This constant demand for gold which Colum- 
bus promised to meet, and was cursed for not 
meeting, broke his heart. The high-minded 
man, who had toiled from youth to advancing 
age in the solution of a great problem, who had 
mastered the science of his time, and had put it 
to the grandest practical experiment that had as 
yet been undertaken in the history of this world, 
is forced at last to become a mere gold-hunter, 
the slave and victim of a greed that controlled his 
sovereigns, his country, and his age. It was the 
demand for the pecuniary profit of his voyages 
and discoveries that led to the introduction of 



The Discovery of America. 195 

slavery, and to the exportation of Indians for that 
inhuman object. 

It is not agreeable for us to think of the great 
discoverer as the first to introduce slavery upon 
the New World ; nevertheless, even the most 
prejudiced anti-Columbian, if he have any infor- 
mation on the subject of the history of slavery, 
will not presume to deny that it was already a 
European institution, sanctioned by the Church 
and the State at the time. Columbus was 
not the author of the inhuman and unchris- 
tian institution, and why should it be expected 
of him, a man of adventure and exploits, that 
he should be more enlightened on this subject 
than the statesmen, priests, and people of Spain, 
and even England, were ? Why should he in the 
fifteenth century be more enlightened on the sub- 
ject of slavery than Jefferson was when he signed 
the Declaration of Independence, or than George 
Washington was when he became President of 
the United States, three hundred years after the 
discovery of America? Columbus introduced 
European civilization to the New World. Slav- 
ery, alas ! was an institution in that civilization. 
The only argument that we make, if any need 
be made in extenuation of the slavery-introduc- 
ing record of Columbus, is simply this, that the 



196 Providential Epochs. 

sins of an age, the crimes of nations, the faults 
of a civilization, should not be heaped upon the 
shoulders of a single individual who may not 
have been able to rise above all the common in- 
humanities of his day ; otherwise, upon a Wash- 
ington must rest the slaveholding crime of Amer- 
ica from 1776 to 1865, for "the great Virginian 
held slaves." It certainly would have been mar- 
velous had Christopher Columbus of the fifteenth 
century possessed all the light that filled the 
soul of Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of the 
nineteenth century. It may be doubted whether 
any of the modern critics of the moral delin- 
quencies of Cohimbus would have been any more 
highly enlightened on the subject of slavery than 
was he, had they lived in his time. 

Though Columbus made four voyages to 
America, he really discovered only the Bahama 
Islands, with Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, Trinidad, 
Honduras, and the extreme northeastern shore 
of South America. Columbus did not discover 
the continent of South America until his third 
voyage in 1498, and he did not set his foot upon 
the continent of North America, nor even know 
of its existence. Before Columbus discovered 
the South American continent, Sebastian Cabot, 
under the patronage of Henry VII of England, 



The Discovery of America. 197 

discovered the continent of North America. 
South America was not discovered until 1498, 
nor North America until 1497. 

The discovery of the outlying islands, how- 
ever, was virtually the discovery of the New 
World. It is only by a quibble that either 
Cabot or Vespucius can be made the discoverer 
of America. Amerigo Vespucius and the Cabots 
were inspired to make their voyage by the suc- 
cess of Columbus. While great honor is due 
the Cabots for the discovery of North America, 
Vespucius really discovered little. He simply 
sailed to and coasted along the shores of South 
America, and the islands already discovered by 
Columbus. He did not even command the ex- 
pedition with which he sailed. He was a retired 
merchant, educated in naval astronomy, and was 
induced by the success of Columbus to sail with 
Admiral Ojeda to the newly-discovered land in 
the West. On his return, his eloquent and 
scientific description of the New World excited 
the wonder and admiration of scholars, and gave 
Europe a better knowledge of the Western 
World than had before been produced. It was 
by his writings, by his descriptions, by his science 
and eloquence, not by his discovery, that the 
New World took his name, and was called 



198 Providential Epochs. 

"America." The name undoubtedly came from 
Germany, where the scientific scholars had been 
so edified by the publications of Amerigo Ves- 
pucius, that they called the land he described 
"America." Whatever honors may be due to 
other explorers and discoverers, Columbus's fa- 
mous reply to a would-be detractor from his 
merit and fame will ever be looked upon as un- 
answerable by the best thought of mankind. It 
is said that on the discoverer's return from his 
first voyage, the Grand Cardinal of Spain invited 
Columbus to a magnificent banquet. One of the 
invited guests, jealous of Columbus's Italian 
nationality, asked him, sneeringly, whether he 
imagined that, " in case he had discovered the 
Indies, there were no other men in Spain who 
would have been capable of the enterprise?" 
Columbus took the famous ^'g^-, invited the com- 
pany to make it stand on end. Every one tried, 
but every one failed. Columbus struck it upon 
the table, and there it stood, illustrating how 
easv it would be for anvbodv to stand an esfgr on 
end, or discover a new world after he had done 
it, and showed them how. 

Columbus made four voyages to the New 
World. On the first voyage, he discovered the 
Bahamas, Cuba and Hayti ; on the second, Ja- 



The Discovery of America. igg 

maica and Porto Rico; on the third, Trinidad 
and the continent of South America ; and on the 
fourth, Porto Bello and Honduras, with adjacent 
islands. Every voyage resulted in important 
discoveries. The jealousies, however, which be- 
gan even before the adventurous caravels spread 
their sails for the first voyage, culminated in 
political intrigues which made it necessary for 
Columbus to return from his second voyage to 
make an explanation at the court of Spain. 
From his third voyage he was sent back to Spain 
as a prisoner in chains, but on his arrival was 
acquitted, liberated, and honored. 

It must be admitted that the temper which 
fitted Columbus to be an explorer and a discov- 
erer did not so well fit him for the work of colo- 
nization. He failed in politics and statesman- 
ship. As it often happens that a great soldier in 
attempting statesmanship fails, so it is not to be 
a matter for astonishment, much less for dispar- 
aging sneer, that a great navigator should fail in 
his ambitious attempt to organize ci\-il society 
and establish political institutions. 

In the prosecution of a war with the Indians, 
who had massacred the Spaniards and had prac- 
ticed cannibalism, Columbus met the savages, 
not onlv with horses, crossbows, and fire-arms, 



200 Providential Epochs. 

but also with bloodhounds. Whether blood- 
hounds are more cruel than shotguns, or whether 
the Spaniards were more ferocious and inhuman 
in dealing with the cannibals than were the can- 
nibals themselves in their treatment of the Span- 
iards, it may not be possible to determine, but 
some writers are disposed to brand Columbus as 
a most heartless wretch because he employed 
bloodhounds in warfare. It would seem that 
such writers are not familiar with the fact that 
the use of dogs in war was not first introduced 
by Columbus, but was as old as Greek and 
Roman warfare. We are told by John Gibson 
that Corinth was once saved by fifty war-dogs, 
which attacked the enemy. The Romans used 
bloodhounds against the Gauls. The English 
and Scotch used them in warfare against each 
other. And, in the time of Elizabeth, the Earl 
of Essex employed eight himdred bloodhounds 
in putting down the Irish rebellion. These facts 
are deduced only to show that dogs were vised in 
war, not only against cannibals, but against civil- 
ized peoples, and were used in civilized Greece, 
Rome, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Spain. 
There can be to this age no justification of the 
use of bloodhounds in war. Must we not go 
farther and say, there can be no justification oi 



The Discovery of America. 201 

the battle-ax, of the shotgun, of the torpedo, of 
war itself against mankind ? 

It is to be regretted that Columbus found it 
necessary to wage war by any method against 
the Indians, as it is to be regretted that the Colo- 
nists of North America were compelled to kill 
Indians, and as it is to be regretted that civiliza- 
tion in any form or in any of her enlightened 
children has been forced into war with savagery 
in any form or with any of her unhappy and 
benighted children. Critics must at least be fair 
to the history of warfare, if not to Columbus, on 
this bloodhound charge. 

The fourth voyage of Columbus was calam- 
itous, and from it the admiral returned an old 
man, shattered in body, if not in mind, and re- 
tired from public view to Valladolid, where, 
friendless, penniless, neglected, and forgotten, he 
died in 1506, having lived as splendid, as useful, 
and as melancholy a life as any that adds pathos, 
charm, and wonder to the annals of modern 
history. 

The future character of this great continent 
was prophesied in its conquests and discoveries. 
This country, which was destined to become 
politically an asylum for the oppressed of all 
nations, was discovered, conquered, explored, and 

14 



202 Providential Epochs. 

originally colonized by all nations. Nearly every 
nation claims the honor of having discovered 
America. The Spaniards, Italians, Welsh, Irish, 
English, Dutch, Scandinavians, Arabs, French, 
and Chinese are each credited with this important 
discovery. It is significant that the blood of all 
these nationalities was destined to flow in the 
veins of the American citizen and that all these 
races were to be gathered under this great re- 
publican form of government where the rights of 
citizenship are not conditioned on race, color, or 
previous condition. 

This question of discovery is a difficult one, not 
to be settled without an understanding of what we 
mean by discovery. Whether the Spaniards, the 
Northmen, the Welsh, the English, or the Chinese 
discovered America depends on what we mean by 
discovery. If the Spaniards were here before the 
English, and the Northmen before the Spaniards, 
and the Welsh before the Northmen, and the 
Chinese before the Welsh, then we still find the 
Indians, the Aztecs and Toltecs before the 
Chinese. When Columbus landed at San Salva- 
dor he was immediately surrounded by the 
inhabitants, whose ancestors had discovered 
America long before. When the Northmen 
landed in Massachusetts in the eleventh century. 



The Discovery of America. 203 

if they did, they found a people whose ancestors 
had evidently discovered America before Ericson, 
the Norse. If the Chinese in the fifth century 
came into Mexico or Central America or South 
America, they found races already in an advanced 
state of civilization whose ancestors must have 
discovered America long before the fifth century. 
Had Columbus pushed on into Central America 
or into Mexico and Peru, he would have been 
astonished to find what Cortez and Pizarro soon 
after found, a barbaric wealth and splendor 
which could have been rivaled only by the glory 
which Marco Polo found in golden India. The 
ruins of sculpture, of tombs, temples, and pal- 
aces, found in Central America and Mexico can 
not be explained except on the ground that a 
civilization once existed there which in its 
origin, growth, supremacy, decay, and oblitera- 
tion has covered a duration of time greater than 
the Christian era, if not as great as from the 
date of Moses to the present time. Who were 
the discoverers of America? Greeks? Egyp- 
tians ? Phoenicians ? Asiatics ? Who can tell ? 
There can be no doubt of the similarity of Aztec 
and Egyptian architecture and sculpture. There 
is a remarkable resemblance between the idols 
of the Aztecs or pre-Aztec civilizations of Amer- 



204 Providential Epochs. 

ica and the idols of China and India. There 
was doubtless an American art, an American 
civilization, long before there was a European 
art or civilization. But there are evidences fur- 
nished by geology, archaeology, and anthropol- 
ogy which prove that man has existed on this 
continent for at least fifty thousand, and possibly 
two hundred thousand years. On the authority 
of Alexander Agassiz, this North American con- 
tinent was the first to lift itself above the uni- 
versal flood and chaos. Doubtless here, then, are 
to be found the earliest traces of the existence of 
man on the earth. Possibly the much debated 
skull found in Calaveras County, California, be- 
longed to an inhabitant of this continent who 
lived a thousand centuries ago ! If the honor of 
having discovered America is to be denied the 
famed Italian, then must it also be withheld 
from the Northmen and given to some daring 
voyager no"w unknown, of an age far more re- 
mote. It is worse than idle to put forward the 
claims of the Northmen when, by the very argu- 
ments which would destroy the Spanish claim, 
the Northmen's claim itself is destroyed. Be- 
yond all question some one found America long 
before Ericson and much longer before Ericson 
than Ericson before Columbus. 



The Discovery of America. 205 

The Pilgrim Fathers were of yesterday. Co- 
lumbus, Cabot, Ericson were but of yesterday. 
The builders of the temples of the South on 
whose ruins is a thousand years' growth of vege- 
tation, they were the discoverers of America, 
and they were the ancient of the ancients. 
But, it may be said, we can not call this dis- 
covery, this is not what we mean. That old 
and vanished people did not give this New World 
to modern civilization, they did not open the 
land to modern progress. So may we say of 
the Chinese. What if there may be discovered 
traces of Asiatic art and religion in the remains 
of the mound-builders of the North and the 
temple-builders and idol-sculptors of the South? 
Did the Chinese discover this land for modern 
enterprise and modern liberty ? What if traces 
of the Welsh language may be found in some 
of the Indian dialects of North America in proof 
of an early Welsh discovery of America ? Did 
the Welsh discoverers, if they existed, discover 
this country for human advancement, for the 
growth of science, freedom, and civilization; or 
were they accidentally storm-driven upon those 
shores finally to become extinct? What if the 
Northmen did come to Massachusetts in the 
eleventh century, or five hundred years before 



2o6 Providential Epochs. 

Columbus, if they left no trace of their presence, 
if they gained no permanent footing here, and 
if, for five hundred years following, the world 
knew nothing about it, and it resulted in no 
opening of the continent to the progress of the 
nations? It is remarkable that since the moment 
the "Te Deum" swelled out across San Salvador, 
civilization has been taking possession of this 
American continent — remarkable that since the 
Cross was planted by Columbus on this new soil, 
the golden sandal of progress has never halted. 
Not once has humanity looked backward; not in 
a single instance has the star of empire hesitated 
in its westward course, or for a moment been 
eclipsed. Who, then, was the true discoverer of 
America? Who found this new land for hu- 
manity and for a new civilization ? Certainly 
none other than he who for four hundred years 
has worn the brightest crown that fame has 
placed upon the brow of man, Christopher Co- 
lumbus, the Genoese. 

It is claimed, however, that the discovery of 
America was an accident ; that Columbus did 
not set out to find new worlds ; that he was in 
search of India, and to his dying day did not 
know that he had found a new world. For this 
reason it is further claimed that no credit or 



The Discovery of America. 207 

glory is due the discoverer. By the same nar- 
row reasoning, if the astronomer turns his tele- 
scope towards the heavens and sees worlds he 
had not looked for, is he to be denied the credit 
of the discovery, and is the discovery but a 
meaningless, unscientific, unphilosophical acci- 
dent? If the mathematician Archimedes, by 
stepping into the bath and displacing the water, 
discovers a new law of physics, shall it be called 
an accident, and all credit be denied the dis- 
coverer? If Galvani goes into the kitchen to 
prepare some broth for his invalid wife, and 
places the frog's legs in contact with a scalpel 
or a copper wire that has been charged with 
electricity, and from the twitching of the frog's 
legs discovers voltaic electricity, shall it be 
called an accident for which no person is to 
have the glory ? 

Galileo at the age of eighteen watched the 
swinging of a lamp in the Cathedral of Pisa, 
noted the regularity of the vibrations, and 
therefrom discovered the time-measuring prop- 
erty of the pendulum. What or who set that 
lamp in motion just at that time? How 
happened it to be swinging just when Galileo 
inadvertently looked up? "An accident," some 
will say, " no credit to Galileo." It was an 



2o8 Providential Epochs. 

accident of a snow-storm that baffled Han- 
nibal ; an accident of a rain-storm, according 
to Hugo, that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. 
Newton was asleep under an apple-tree, when 
an apple fell and struck him, and gave him a 
solution of the universe in the discovery of the 
law of gravity. An accident! James Watt STt 
before the kitchen fireplace warming his hands, 
or waiting for the frugal meal, when the lid of 
the teakettle began to dance, and the power of 
steam revealed itself to the mind that under- 
stood it. Another accident! In 1849, ^ "^^ 
settler is excavating for a mill-race out in Cali- 
fornia and finds a nugget of gold. The discov- 
ery of gold in California an accident ! Nearly 
every great event that has helped the world on- 
ward may be reduced to a so-called accident. 
Archimedes did not go to the bath-tub to find 
a new law of physics ; Galvani did not go into 
the kitchen to find voltaic electricity ; Galileo did 
not go into the Cathedral of Pisa to find the 
isochronal property of the pendulum ; Newton 
did not fall asleep under the apple-tree to find the 
law of gravity; Watt did not sit down before the 
sputtering teakettle to find the power of steam ; 
Marshall did not excavate for the mill-race in 
California to find gold ; and, in the same sense, 



The Discovery of America. 209 

Columbus did not sail into the West to find a new 
world. But all the better, all the more credit 
and glory, if the astronomer who turns his tele- 
scope in search of a comet find a blazing sun. 
And all the better, all the more honor and fame, 
if the navigator who sails in search of India 
find — America! Humanity will forever appre- 
ciate and honor the men who have had the genius 
to meet with such splendid accidents. Accidents? 
No. This world is not run by chance. The des- 
tinies of humanity are not determined by acci- 
dents. Science and philosophy, logic and reason, 
eliminate the word "accident" from the discus- 
sion of history and the causes of events. The 
true philosophy of history repudiates the reality 
of the accidental, but recognizes the eternal and 
necessary reality of the providential. 

In his very ignorance of the true character of 
his discovery, and his acknowledgment of Di- 
vine guidance, as well as in the great moral and 
social results of the opening of this long-closed, 
inexhaustible continent, there would seem to be 
indications that Columbus was a man of Provi- 
dence, a man who wrought even better than he 
knew, and was but carrying out, on a grander 
scale than he imagined, the purpose and the plan 
of the Divine Wisdom. Because he did not know 



2IO Providential Epochs. 

that he had found a new world, but supposed 
that he had reached India, some would dispar- 
age his greatness; but on the same ground the 
glory of Cabot's discoveries must be denied, as 
he did not know that he had found a new conti- 
nent, nor did any of the explorers and discover- 
ers for several years after America was found 
come to realize the true significance of Colum- 
bus's achievement. 

We are not disposed to ascribe to Columbus 
all the glory for American civilization. It must 
be admitted that he never knew to his dying day 
that he had found a new world, other than India, 
which, alas ! he never saw. We can not suppose 
that he had in his noble mind all the sentiments 
of liberty, progress, and civilization which have 
been developed here and brought to a splendid 
fruitage. It may, however, be very rationally 
believed that he was one of history's providential 
geniuses, that he possessed a lofty spirit, and 
was actuated by holy ambitions to benefit man- 
kind. His faith, courage, leadership, endurance, 
and knowledge fitted him for the high enterprise 
whose success brought humanity an eternal bless- 
ing, and his own name an immortal renown. 

Columbus had not a prophet's vision ; he 
could not see what Spanish conquerors, French 



The Discovery of America. 211 

explorers and English colonizers, Pilgrims, Puri- 
tans, and Huguenots would do for this land. Nor 
could he see new kingdoms, empires, and repub- 
lics rise in power and flourish with happiness 
here. Bright and extravagant were his dreams ; 
but he could not have dreamed what this gener- 
ation has come to realize. The men who were 
here to be born, to rise to fame and greatness; 
the events which were here to add glory to his- 
tory ; the revolutions, reformations, mighty strides 
of moral and political progress, which were here 
to be achieved, can not be expected to have en- 
gaged the imagination of Columbus. What four 
hundred years, in the ages of humanity, have 
crowded into them more advancement, more 
light and truth, more science and liberty, more 
righteousness and human greatness, than the 
four hundred years since the Columbian discovery 
of America ? If all the glory for this may not be 
attributed to Columbus, nevertheless he takes 
his place at the front of that long line of explor- 
ers and discoverers, the most famous of history, 
whose names are forever associated with the 
name of America. What a race of history-mak- 
ers they were : Columbus, Vespucius, Cabot, 
Cortereal, De Leon, Magellan, Verrazzani, Car- 
tier, De Soto, Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Cor- 



212 Providential Epochs. 

tez, Pizarro, Gilbert, Davis, Raleigh, La Salle, 
Hudson, and Cliamplain ! A score of names im- 
mortalized and gaining glory in the history and 
by the progress of the American world ! 

Do not these names belong to us ? In a truer 
sense than nativity, are not these all Americans ? 
And when we call the roll of the great, must not 
these names be mentioned as the forerunners, 
and in a sense the national ancestors, of such 
men as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, 
Hamilton, Webster, Grant, and Lincoln ? As 
discoverers and explorers they were like the 
spies of sacred history, the van of a mighty host 
and the heralds of an unparalleled immigration. 
They were even more ; for it was their mission 
to find and clear the ground where should be 
laid, by just as undeniably providential men, 
the deep and broad foundations of republican 
civilization. There seems to have been, in all 
that discovering and exploring, a wisdom and 
a planning above the apparent wisdom and 
planning of men. 

The discovery of America, as we have found, 
belonged to that great intellectual awakening 
called the Renaissance. And no event of all 
those splendid times ministered so powerfully 
to the perpetuation of the Renaissance, to the 



The Discovery of America. 213 

onward, upward march of the sun of intellectual 
enlightenment and freedom, as the finding of 
this New World. This discovery gave intellect, 
science, and liberty their field and opportu- 
nity. It prevented a reaction from the revival 
of reason, and made impossible a repetition of 
the Dark Ages. It made way for all the lib- 
erties, and furnished motives and inspiration for 
all the moral and mental activities. It gave all 
the problems arena, and made human progress 
not only possible, but imperative and inevitable. 

Martin Luther was ten years old when Colum- 
bus discovered America, and while the naviga- 
tor was completing his work, Luther was open- 
ing the Bible for the first time in the University 
of Erfurt, and committing to memory the battle- 
cry of the coming Reformation — " The just shall 
live by faith." These great intellectual and re- 
ligious movements were not only related to each 
other, but both were also related to the discovery 
of America. The discovery of America perpetu- 
ated the Reformation, as it did the Renaissance. 

The discovery of North America by Cabot, the 
settlement of New England by the Puritans, the 
Declaration of Independence, the American Rev- 
olution, the establishment of this representative 
self-government, the emancipation of the slaves, 



214 Providential Epochs. 

and abolition of the slave-traffic, which even Co- 
lumbus inaugurated, and Washington and Jeffer- 
son helped to perpetuate, were inevitable events; 
they grew as inevitable harvests from the soil 
which the genius of a Columbus discovered, and 
which the doctrines of the Reformers cultivated. 
Columbus discovered from a quarter to a third 
of the habitable earth, and added it to the prop- 
erty of the world. By this achievement he not 
only revolutionized commerce, but multiplied the 
wealth of all mankind. He has made it easier 
for every man to earn his daily bread, and he 
who has made bread-winning easier for human 
muscle, has made truth-learning and God-finding 
easier for human mind and heart. 

In the age of Columbus the most abundant 
source of national wealth was conquest; and, 
though the discovery of America was soon fol- 
lowed by the ruthless conquests of Cortez and 
Pizarro, nevertheless, in the development of the 
last four hundred years, it has been shown by 
the opening of this New World, and the conse- 
quent multiplication of productive industries, 
and the augmentation of the world's com- 
merce, that civilized nations have found the true 
philosophy of wealth in beating their swords 
into plowshares, and their spears into prun- 



The Discovery of America. 215 

ing-hooks. When to celebrate the discovery 
of America the nations of the earth met in the 
peaceful 'rivalries of a Universal Exposition, the 
idea of conquest was no longer to be found in 
the political economy of any Government ; it no 
longer exists in any accepted science or philoso- 
phy of national prosperity; it has been elimi- 
nated from the vocabulary of progressive states- 
manship. 

The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the 
discovery of America quickened the intellectual 
life of all Europe. The increase of commerce 
greatly enriched the maritime nations, and laid 
that foundation of material prosperity which, as 
in the case of ancient Rome and Athens, and of 
Venice and Florence, proved to be one of the es- 
sential conditions for the development of science, 
art, and literature. Germany's greatness is almost 
entirely post-Columbian and post-Lutheran. Her 
unity, her literature, philosophy, statesmanship, 
and military glory belong to the last four 
hundred years. England's literary, commercial, 
scientific, and naval supremacy followed the dis- 
covery of the New World. The Elizabethan age 
of English literature was the fruit of the com- 
bined influence of that discovery, and of the 
Reformation. The influence of Columbus upon 



2i6 Providential Epochs, 

Cabot, Frobisher, Clifford, Drake, and Raleigh, 
and the further influence of their achievements 
upon the commercial, industrial, and literary 
life of England may be distinctly traced, and 
therein may the philosophy of England's mod- 
ern greatness be found. Though Chaucer had 
sung his message a century before, it was a cen- 
tury after the discovery of America before Sidney, 
Bacon, Spenser, Jonson, Shakespeare, and Milton 
came to make the English language classical. 

Almost the entire history of invention belongs 
to the post-Columbian age. The compass, the 
telescope, and the printing-press, in rude form, 
were here before ; but the triumph of steam and 
electricity, by which navigation, travel, and man- 
ufacturing, have been revolutionized, belongs 
to the later age. Nearly all industrial machinery, 
as the loom, steam-engine, sewing-machine, and 
reaper, the practical and humanitarian application 
of science, is of comparatively recent invention. 

But it will be admitted that the science of 
government has kept pace with the material 
development, the growth of wealth, the multi- 
plication of industries, the invention of ma- 
chinery, and the progress of literature and art. 
The nations have learned great lessons in law, 
government, and freedom since humanity began 



The Discovery of America. 217" 

to pour into this New World; and every nation 
of the earth has been politically influenced,, 
even educated and modified, by the rise and de- 
velopment of this Republic. All nations have 
been contributing to our greatness, and there 
has been a providential preparation through the 
centuries for the not far-distant ideal political 
government. It can not be visionary to assume 
that history has been shaping toward the grand 
consummation of the establishment on this con- 
tinent of the trinity of Republics — one united 
Republic of all North America, one united Re- 
public of all Central America, and one united 
Republic of all South America; and these bound 
together in eternal reciprocity and national 
good-will for the maintenance of liberty and 
the promotion of the highest material, intellect- 
ual, and moral civilization known to mankind. 
It is said that Ferdinand of Spain erected a 
monument to the memory of America's discov- 
erer with the inscription: 

"For Castile and Leon, Columbus found a New World." 

The history of the New World during the 
past four hundred years has shown more and 
more clearly, with the progress of events, the 
narrowness of Ferdinand's conception. By what 

15 



i'lS PkovWENTiAL Epochs. 

America has come to be, not only to herself, but 
to all the nations of the earth, the legend can no 
longer stand — 

"For Castile and Leon, Columbus found a New World;" 

for it, must be substituted the broader legend, 
and the legend that shall be truer to history, 
truer to prophecy, truer to the hopes of men 
and the providential purpose of God: "For 
truth, for liberty, and for humanity, Columbus 
found a New World." 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



lY. 

The Settlement of Our Country. 



219 



lY. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF OUR COUNTRY. 

IT was most fortunate for the Protestant move- 
ment, and for the cause of religious liberty 
in general, that the Reformation poured its life- 
giving current into many distinct channels. A 
multiplicity of sects appeared; but the same 
spirit, life, and progressive impulse controlled 
them all. Had the Protestant movement as- 
sumed one ecclesiastical form, there would have 
been danger of its subsidence and failure. A 
traitor at the head of the cause might have 
abandoned its precious interests or betrayed it 
to its enemies. A Roman Catholic coming to 
the throne in a Protestant country might very 
easily have handed a single sect — such as Lu- 
theranism, Presbyterianism, or Episcopalian- 
ism — over to the power of the papacy, as Mary 
attempted it in England. Indifference or cor- 
ruption, creeping into one vast ecclesiasticism, 
might have been fatal to the Reformation, if it 
had embodied itself in but a single form of 
creed and discipline. But with many sects the 
cause was safer, since if one had failed, or had 



222 Providential Epochs. 

grown indifferent and corrupt, the other sects 
might have retained the true spirit of the move- 
ment, and carried on the work of reform. With 
the Lutherans of Germany, the Huguenots of 
France, the Moravians of Bohemia, the Salz- 
burgers of Austria, the Presbyterians of Scot- 
land, and the Episcopalians and Puritans of 
England, there were certain to be sects that 
would remain true to the great cause, and pre- 
serve the results of the Reformation, as would 
not have been probable if only one sect had em- 
bodied the genius of reform. 

This epoch was a time to try men's souls. 
The sacrifices demanded of those who first en- 
listed under the banner of the Reformation and 
became identified with the genesis and first 
growth of Protestantism, can hardly be esti- 
mated, much less appreciated, at this distance 
of time and progress. The cause was forced to 
develop under the most severe conditions of in- 
tolerance and persecution. But if history is 
stained with many a dark and shameful crime 
against the personal, political, and religious 
rights of humanity, there are nevertheless bright 
spots here and there, made glorious by the hero- 
ism and self-sacrifices of men who, loving truth 
above honor, and liberty more than life, have 



The Settlement of Our Country. 223 

risen up in the majesty of their conscientious- 
ness and laid all upon the altar of human free- 
dom and progress. Men of this high and noble 
order rose up in Germany, Holland, France, 
Switzerland, Bohemia, and England. At first 
their numbers were small, hence the persecu- 
tions in some lands were very great. But as in 
the days of the Roman emperors the persecu- 
tions from paganism could not quench the gos- 
pel flame that was spreading through the whole 
empire, so in the later days of Roman Catholic 
emperors, the persecutions of a paganized Chris- 
tianity could not subdue the spirit of the Ref- 
ormation, which was to restore an apostolic 
Christianity. 

In the bravery of those great days, in the 
spirit of that many-tongued Reformation, and 
in the devotion and progressive purpose of those 
persecuted sects of an uprising Protestantism, 
we may find the philosophy of American lib- 
erty — the causes tributary to the irresistible, 
onward current of religious and political free- 
dom that has channeled its way from sea to sea 
across this continent. In this mighty current 
of liberty and progress we find elements that 
have sprung from various fountain-heads — Lu- 
theran elements, Huguenot elements, Moravian 



224 Providential Epochs. 

elements, Puritan elements. So conspicuous are 
these influences that we must acknowledge 
American colonization, independence, and self- 
government to have been potentially a part of 
the Reformation. Our Republic, with all its 
present greatness and all its possibilities, came 
out of that Protestant revival. 

The discovery of the New World by Colum- 
bus in 1492, and Cabot's discovery of North 
America in 1497, with England's enlightenment 
on the subject, came just in time to aid the new 
growth of ideas, the development of intellect- 
ualism, the spread of Protestant Christianity, and 
the seed-planting of the universal democracy. 

The discovery of America was necessary to 
the preservation of human liberty — necessary to 
the securing of it. Like the plant in a tiny 
vase, the great cause of Christian civilization, in 
its rapid development, was bursting its limita- 
tions, and there was danger of its so outgrowing 
the soil as to perish for lack of nourishment. 
But it threw new roots into the rich, exhaust- 
less soil of the New Continent, the New World, 
and therefrom it caught a new life, took on fresh 
strength, spread its exultant branches, and bent 
benignly toward every race with its weight of 
freedom's golden fruit, 



The Settlement of Our Country. 225 

A New World was as severe a blow to super- 
stition, bigotry, and religious intolerance as was 
the Reformation itself. Indeed, that discovery 
was to result in preserving and immortalizing 
the work of the Reformers by securing its intro- 
duction into the life and growth of a new po- 
litical system and a new civilization. But if 
the discovery of America was an event which 
seems providential in its very date, in its rela- 
tion to the progress of intellectualism and the 
growth of religious and political freedom, so, 
also, for the eternal good of this New World, 
the Reformation providentially came just in 
time. It would be difficult for the philosopher 
to determine which was the more helpful — the 
influence of the discovery of America on the 
Reformation and the development of Protestant- 
ism, or the influence of the Reformation and the 
new Protestantism on the civilization and settle- 
ment of America. What would all North America 
have become without a Protestantism? A larger 
Mexico — nothing more. Undoubtedly Roman- 
ism had its eye on this continent with a view 
to re-establishing here that ecclesiastical su- 
premacy which it was losing in the Old World. 
Spain, the ever-willing tool of the papal power, 
laid claim to all habitable North America, and 



226 Providential Epochs. 

sought to colonize the country in the interests 
of the Romish faith and the Spanish treasury. 
As the pope was losing Germany, Holland, 
France, and England, he would offset his losses 
by colonizing and Romanizing a New World. 
But England, sweeping on into the new move- 
ment under Henry VHI and Elizabeth, chal- 
lenged at once the right and the power of the 
pope to give America to Spain, and the right 
and power of Spain to give America to the pope. 
There began therefore a rivalry, if not a con- 
test, in American colonization. It was logically 
one of the issues of the conflict between Eng- 
land and Spain. Pope Pius V excommunicated 
Elizabeth, and gave England to Philip W for 
the taking. On this high enterprise was the 
Spanish Armada bound in 1588, when — not by 
the renowned Raleigh, nor by the gallant Drake, 
but by the very winds of heaven — the magnifi- 
cent naval array was swept to destruction, the 
power of haughty Spain was broken, and the 
insolence of Rome was rebuked. The fate of 
the Armada largely determined the fate of 
Spanish-American colonization, and in no small 
degree prevented the complete Romanizing of 
North America. 

The dominant political influence in the colo- 



The Settlement of Our Country. 227 

nization of our country was English, and the 
controlling religious power was Protestant. How 
much the providential storm which wrecked the 
Armada had to do with determining the Protest- 
antism of the Colonies it may be difficult to 
prove; but the providential elements entering 
into the solution of the problem are to be found 
not only in the stars and the winds, but in the 
brains of men and the plans and achievements 
of peoples and nations. 

Aside from the religio-political aspect of the 
issues involved in the conflict between Spain 
and England, the Reformation was a potent fac- 
tor in the establishment of our national founda- 
tion. It was the Reformation that raised up 
and sent forth colonizers and settlers of deep 
religious life, of advanced and liberal ideas — men 
of high and heroic character, men of prayer and 
faith and independent conscience, men of con- 
victions and Bibles and Sabbaths. Without 
that Reformation no such race of moral giants 
could have been thrust out into this New World, 
and without such a race of men the problem of 
self-government could not have been solved, this 
continent-wide Republic could not have been es- 
tablished. 

American civilization was founded by a civil- 



228 Providential Epochs. 

ized people ; this can be said of no other great 
nation of the past. When Julius Caesar wrote 
the commentaries of his wars in Gaul, he said of 
the ancestors of the Shakespeares, Newtons, and 
Gladstones : " The greater part never sow their 
lands (did not know enough to plow), but live 
on flesh and milk, and go clad in skins. All the 
Britons in general paint themselves with woad, 
which gives a bluish cast to the skin, and makes 
them look dreadfiil in battle." 

But going back to the founding of the Rome 
of which this very Caesar was ruler, we find that 
the first settlers were the robbers, murderers, 
beggars, and outlaws from all creation to whom 
Romulus gave an asylum. The Greeks sprang 
from wandering tribes, who in their journeys of 
plunder and conquest from the northeast, pitched 
upon Attica, and began the history which grew 
to be so glorious. And Israel, did she not 
rise out of Egypt's brickyards? Had those 
slavish brickmakers a higher ancestry than the 
wandering shepherds of Chaldea, dwellers in 
tents, without learning, la.ws, and manners ? 

But, as we turn to consider America's national 
beginners, we look upon a civilized people, not 
like the rude barbarian of painted face which 
Csesar found in Britain ; not like the motley out- 



The Settlement of Our Country. 229 

laws which Romulus gathered about him on the 
Capitoline ; not like the marauding Pelasgi who 
first settled Attica ; not like the long-enslaved 
bondmen of Egypt, the descendants of the un- 
tutored shepherds, who came to the founding of 
Hebrew civilization. Our grandsires were a peo- 
ple who had in their brains and hearts the ripest 
results of the best civilization the world had de- 
veloped. Of such a people, well-educated and 
thoroughly Christianized, something great should 
have been expected. They were, doubtless, the 
most courageous, conscientious, devout, high- 
minded part of that seventeenth-century humanity. 
If there existed a class of people on the earth, 
mentally and morally qualified to found a new 
nation, and a better nation than had yet existed, 
it was that class who knew enough, and were 
conscientious and courageous enough, to leave 
historic, civilized England, Holland, France, Ger- 
many, and Switzerland, for this mighty, limitless 
wilderness, and for the privilege of worshiping 
God after the dictates of their own consciences. 
It is easy for any one to see it now, only a 
prophet could have seen it before, that it was in 
our human destiny, a divinely-fashioned destiny, 
for this people in their development to break 
from the old European alliances. Humanity 



2^0 Providential Epochs. 

was to take a great stride of progress in the 
work of our fathers. History was to record, not 
only the opening of a new continent, but of a 
new era ; it was to note, not only the advance of 
thousands of Europeans to a new country, but 
the advance of these minds to new ideas and 
new institutions. Here was to be the genesis, 
not only of a new colonization, but of a new civ- 
ilization. The Muse of History turned a fresh 
page to record the glory of a new and a most 
wonderful national development. It will occur to 
the thoughtful that the remarkable event of In- 
dependence could have been achieved only by 
remarkable men. 

Such men are doubtless with us all the time. 
They walk our streets unknown even to them- 
selves, as did Grant and Lincoln, only waiting for 
providential circumstances to call them to greatness 
and fame. Certainly they were on the soil yonder 
when critical hours called for power, genius, and 
devotion. Our Pilgrim and Revolutionary fathers 
are part of the greatness and glory of the past. 
Bradford, Standish, and Winthrop; Oglethorpe, 
Vane, and Roger Williams ; Warren, Otis, Henry, 
and Adams ; Hancock, Lee, Jefferson, Hamilton, 
and Washington, — those names have been like 
drum-beats to quicken the pulse of patriotism. 



The Settlement of Our Country. 231 

They are histories in themselves. Greater than 
songs and epics, greater than eloquence and 
riches, is the name of a mighty man to influ- 
ence generations to high ambitions, and thrill 
them with the purpose of heroic deeds. We are 
rich ; no nation is richer in great names. We 
envy not Greece her Alexander and Phocion, 
nor Rome her Caesar and Justinian, nor France 
her Napoleon and Charlemagne, nor England 
her Wellington and Alfred, so long as we re- 
member the mighty-souled men who, in the 
founding of this country, seemed to carry mil- 
lenniums in their hearts, as well as ''empires in 
their brains." From the hearts and brains of 
such men came the high and distinctive charac- 
ter of American institutions. They still live in 
the genius of our Government, they have put 
themselves into the very fiber of our national 
life, and they belong as controlling, fashioning 
forces to all the history which is and which 
will be. 

We should ever keep in mind the distinction 
to be made between the early adventurers and 
the early settlers of this country, between the 
fortune-hunters and the home-hunters. The. 
early settlers were no such men as followed Co- 
lumbus in search of gold-mines and spice-groves ; 



232 Providential Epochs. 

no such men as followed Pizarro to rob the 
Incas of their glory, and reduce the proud Peru- 
vians to slavery ; no such men as followed Cortez 
to humble the Montezumas, and despoil ancient 
Mexico of her old barbaric splendor. Men like 
these historic robbers and assassins might have 
been the first to settle America had it not been 
for that Northern Reformation which took this 
continent through the courage of great moral 
heroes for a higher purpose than that of conquest 
and plunder. If the early Colonists may be 
severely censured for their harsh treatment of 
the aborigines, it will be found as one of the 
possible extenuating circumstances, that injus- 
tice toward the American Indians first came, 
not from the settlers, but from the adventur- 
ers. The Indians did not distinguish the settler 
from the adventurer; both were white men. And 
in the wars that followed we look upon the 
legitimate results of an hostility, which had been 
created by unprincipled fortune-seekers. The 
hatred of the Indian for the white man, and of 
the white man for the Indian, was engendered 
by the conscienceless cupidity of adventurers who 
are not to be confounded with either the true 
Puritan or the true Cavalier. 

This peculiar people, already civilized and 



The Settlement of Our Country. 233 

Christianized, brought with them four great 
ideas to be worked out into a new civilization. 
It will be found in the study of ancient forms of 
society, that every nation or civilization was but 
the development of some one great idea. The 
central idea in Hebrew civilization was religion. 
Egyptian greatness was built up mainly about 
the idea of material aggrandizement ; the Greeks 
emphasized culture, and the Romans law or gov- 
ernment. If no one of these great ideas alone 
is sufficient to secure national permanency, no 
one of them can be rejected. All of them are 
essential to the upbuilding and strength of so- 
ciety and government. 

The settlers of the New World brought with 
them these four ideas; namely, government, 
material prosperity, culture, and religion. Gov- 
ernment, in their minds, grew into democracy, 
and democracy formulated itself in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, the Constitution of the 
United States, and the institutions of a repre- 
sentative self-government. Both the settlers at 
Jamestown and the settlers at Plymouth had 
hopes, aspirations, and purposes from the begin- 
ning which, by an inevitable evolution, came to 
be the Declaration of 1776, and the Constitu- 
tion of 1788. The children of the settlers were 

16 



234 Providential Epochs. 

the fathers of the signers. A democracy, pure 
and simple, our fathers never intended ; such a 
government in form is possible only within a 
very limited territory, and, of course, would be 
impossible on this great continent. In so far as 
democracy meant the government of the people 
by the people, and for the people, it was the am- 
bition of our fathers to realize it. But the only 
form of self-government practicable on so ex- 
tended a territory as this continent was rep- 
resentative self-government, or the republican 
form of government. A Republic was es- 
tablished. At the beginning of our national 
history, the controversy was started as to 
whether the union of states composing the 
Republic constituted a National Union, one and 
inseparable, or a mere confederacy of sovereign 
States, which might be dissolved at any time a 
State saw fit to withdraw or secede from the 
Union. That controversy which divided' the very 
heroes of the Revolution, and even the framers 
of the Constitution, continued from the days of 
Hamilton and Jefferson to the days of Webster 
and Calhoun, and of Lincoln and Douglas ; nor 
was it closed until at Appomattox the theory of 
secession in the person of Robert B. Lee surren- 
dered to the theory of the indivisible National 



The Settlement of Our Country. 235 

Union in the person of Ulysses S. Grant. K 
representative self-government in the form of 
a National Union, one and inseparable, as the 
Republic stands to-day, is the ripe and fully de- 
veloped fruit of the great seed-thought of democ- 
racy brought to the New World in the brains 
and hearts, the hopes and aspirations of the first 
settlers. 

In considering the epoch of the early settle- 
ment of America we find three other ideas as 
forces at work, laying the foundations of our 
republican civilization. These ideas are indus- 
try, intellect, and religion — forces which char- 
acterize the men of that time and that important 
work. 

That settlement was an industrial movement. 
Those frail ships so providentially guided to 
these shores were filled with a people who had 
been bred to toil — a people whose hands had 
grown callous in the fields of England, the fac- 
tories of Holland, and the mountains of Switzer- 
land and Austria. Some few were soft-handed 
fortune-hunters, who expected to gather up gold 
from the soil of Virginia by shiploads; but the 
great majority were intelligent toilers, who came 
to develop the resources of the New World, to 
make a home, and build a nation. And fortu- 



236 Providential Epochs. 

tiate was it for this country that such a class 
came. Perhaps the least successful of all the 
Colonies in gaining a footing and securing per- 
manent prosperity was Virginia. There, set- 
tlers had more difficulty with the weather, In- 
dians, disease, and every opposing force, than in 
any other colony, and largely because too great 
a proportion of the first settlers were "gentle- 
men." The climate and the Indians made sad 
havoc of "gentlemen." America could never 
have been settled by "gentlemen," and yet we 
shall find that these very "gentlemen" brought 
into the colonization of America a valuable ele- 
ment of power. The first great desideratum, how- 
ever, was muscle. And in lauding the virtues 
of the early settlers, we should not forget those 
masses of early toilers, the thousands who sleep 
in unmarked graves, whose names adorn no 
songs, no histories, no page of fame, but with- 
out whose industry, enterprise, and hardships 
America, even to this day, could have had no 
songs, no history, no fame. If in all that early 
life one man was despised more than any other, 
it was the idler. The old command seemed re- 
newed to that people: "Replenish the earth 
and subdue it." In those brave days, toil be- 
came a religion; industry, a creed; muscle, a 



The Settlement of Our Country. 237 

virtue; hardship, a saintliness; and callousness, 
character. 

From men of this vigorous jEiber sprang a 
race whose industrial achievements have no 
parallel in history. The present state of devel- 
opment found in this country, from sea to sea 
and from gulf to lakes, is in itself Industry's 
sublimest epic. Toil never accomplished so 
much in any other three hundred years in any 
other land as it has accomplished on this con- 
tinent since the landing of the Pilgrims, and 
this is largely due to the fact that from our 
fathers' days to these, here has been recognized 
the dignity of toil. 

If the history of nations teaches us anything 
it is that national greatness, wealth, and peace 
are very largely conditioned on the ceaseless 
industry of the people ; while an idle people, or 
a people who hate toil, are incapable of great 
social enlightenment, or of great national pros- 
perity. Our prosperity has come, not only from 
the soil, forests, mountains, aud mines of this 
opulent continent, but from the intelligently 
directed muscle of the people — from that indus- 
try which is as necessary to virtue and intel- 
lectuality as to wealth and material aggrandize- 
ment. We boast an ancestry of toil — wielders, 



238 Providential Epochs. 

not of swords and scepters, but wielders of the 
hammer, the ax, the shovel, and the pruning- 
hook, which have wrought more gloriously for 
civilization than either sword or scepter. 

The first great problem in the development 
of the New World was a physical problem, and 
it was to be solved by labor. The greatness of 
our country thus far is largely due to the toilers 
who have cultivated the land, built the cities, 
constructed the railroads, developed the mines, 
kindled the furnaces, and started the mills. 
Prosperity must precede the refinements. Labor 
which creates wealth, lays the foundation of 
culture. It is after a people have reached a 
comparative ease that they turn to art and let- 
ters. A material prosperity, revival of indus- 
try, trade, and wealth, preceded the intellectual 
awakening of the Elizabethan era, and also of 
the Renaissance. Culture followed wealth in 
the civilization of ancient Rome, Greece, and 
Egypt. 

The development of a mighty people, how- 
ever, will not stop at material prosperity. Great 
granaries, railroads, machines, and houses are 
not equal in glory to great books, colleges, and 
thinkers. The ^Eneid stands for a greater 
Rome than the Coliseum ; the Iliad, for a nobler 



The Settlement of Our Country. 239 

Greece than the sword of Miltiades; Oxford is 
higher than Manchester; brain ranks brawn. 

The early settlement of North America was 
an intellectual and moral movement, as was the 
Reformation. Its leading promoters were the 
scholars of the age. The ignorant and super- 
stitious masses remained with the old Roman- 
ism; the intelligent and progressive came into 
the new Protestantism. The first Protestants 
were the most advanced thinkers of their time, 
whether they were laymen or clergymen. The 
Puritans, Moravians, and Huguenots were a 
people of advanced ideas, thoughtful, and intel- 
lectual. When they came to this country they 
brought with them the intellectual tastes and 
aspirations which were to give a high and ra- 
tional character to American institutions and 
life. It will also be kept in mind that the col- 
onization of this country was promoted during 
the'golden age of English letters, and was pat- 
ronized by the brightest geniuses that adorned 
the reigns of Elizabeth and James. Sir Walter 
Raleigh, though no Puritan, was a colonizer, or 
an organizer of colonies, and sailed for Virginia 
with a company of "gentlemen" of taste and 
education. He had been the companion of 
Bacon and Spenser, and had doubtless associated 



240 Providential Epochs. 

with Jonson and Shakespeare. He was one 
of the most universal scholars of his age — a 
scientist, historian, philosopher, statesman, and 
poet, no less than a voyager and soldier. It 
was only by an accident that he failed to reach 
and possibly to become a settler of Virginia. 
Sir Philip Sidney was also an active promoter 
of Virginian colonization, organizing voyages to 
the New World. He was actually on board the 
ship bound for America — as was Cromwell, later 
on — when a summons from the queen called 
him back to the court. William Herbert, third 
Earl of Pembroke, one of the most zealous 
friends of Virginian colonization, a patentee of 
vast tracts of land in the New World and a pro- 
moter of emigration, was a patron of learning 
and literature, after whom Pembroke College, 
Oxford, was named, and to whom the first folio- 
edition of Shakespeare's works was dedicated. 
Thomas West, third Lord De La Warr, who 
"devoted his life to the movement for estab- 
lishing English Protestant colonies in the New 
World," and who was the first governor and 
captain-general of Virginia, was a graduate of 
Oxford University, and a member of the Privy 
Council of Queen Elizabeth and of James I. 
George Sandys, who "spent the ripest of his 



The Settlement of Our Country. 241 

years in the public employment in Virginia," 
was an Oxford man, a scholar and author whose 
intellectual abilities were displayed in several 
literary productions, including his well-known 
"Paraphrase of the Psalms," and his transla- 
tions into English verse of Ovid's "Metamor- 
phoses." It was this class of highly intellect- 
ual men that largely determined the character 
of early Virginian settlement. The very intel- 
lectuality of those promoters of colonization was 
prophetic of the future culture of Virginians — a 
people of oratory, eloquence, statesmanship, and 
refined manners. 

Among the foundation-builders of Massachu- 
setts we find Winthrop, educated at Cambridge, 
England; Vane, from Oxford, a scholar and 
statesman, whose genius and life gave orna- 
ment to both American and English history; 
and Leverett, a member of the Royal Society, 
whose learning was the admiration of two con- 
tinents. Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode 
Island, was a Cambridge man, and an intimate 
friend of John Milton and his intellectual like. 
The younger Winthrop was a college graduate, 
whose name has stood for culture in Connecticut, 
where Yale has maintained supremacy for clas- 
sical education. John Ivocke, the philosopher, 



242 PROVIDEMTIAL EPOCHS. 

was so interested in the early development of 
the political institutions of this country that he 
wrote a constitution for North Carolina. Ogle- 
thorpe came from England's halls of learning 
and famous fields of glory to found Georgia with 
a colony of honest debtors, who, though bank- 
rupt financially, were in many instances rich in 
culture and all the refinements of civilized life. 
Indeed, one can not walk up and down those 
Colonies without finding scores and hundreds of 
learned men, college graduates, who left their 
intellectual mark upon the age. In further proof 
of the educational tastes and tendencies of the 
people who settled America, during the first one 
hundred and fifty years we see springing up on 
every hand such institutions of learning as Har- 
vard in Massachusetts, Yale in Connecticut, 
Princeton in New Jersey, William and Mary in 
Virginia, Columbia in New York, Dartmouth in 
New Hampshire, Brown in Rhode Island, and 
the University of Pennsylvania. A larger per- 
centage of the ministers, governors, teachers, 
statesmen, and generals of that day, and of the 
Revolutionary period, were liberally educated 
than of* those in the same professions to-day. 
By the time the Revolution was on, the 
statesmen of the country were so universally 



The Settlement of Our Country. 243 

well educated that three-fourths of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence were college 
graduates. Puritanism was born in Cambridge 
University, and from the intellectual cradle of 
its birth the Puritan spirit carried a taste for 
learning into New England, where were laid the 
foundations of American science and literature. 
The college-born spirit of Puritanism essayed 
to establish in this New World a civilization of 
intellectual vigor,. no less than of material ag- 
grandizement — a civilization which recognizes 
the school as a bulwark of liberty more impreg- 
nable than forts, the press as a weapon of de- 
fense mightier than the sword, and education as 
a guarantee of national power more potent than 
any kingly scepter. As early as 1647 the free 
common school was established in Massachusetts 
by order of the General Court. They wrought 
grandly — those serious, sensible fathers — but not 
more grandly than they knew ; for there never 
came to the building of a new nation a more 
progressive and high-minded race of men than 
our national founders, who were enlightened 
enough to appreciate the fact that the intelli- 
gence which had asserted their liberty -was es- 
sential to its maintenance. So wisely did those 
first Americans plan and execute, that, after a 



244 Providential Epochs. 

lapse of nearly two hundred years, Daniel Web- 
ster could say: "Among the luminaries in the 
sky of New England, the burning lights which 
throw intelligence and happiness on her people, 
the first and most brilliant is her common 
schools." Since those first days, the common 
school has been intimately related to the growth 
and maintenance of republicanism. It has had a 
political mission in securing the democracy of 
intelligence and the intelligence of democracy. 
It has come to be a conviction with us that free- 
dom can be achieved only by the maintenance 
of the people's intelligence, and the people's in- 
telligence can be maintained only by a common- 
school system that will give universally to the 
generations as they rise the elements of a liberal 
education. Seminaries may educate classes; the 
common school alone can educate the masses. 
Despotisms may even plant and patronize col- 
leges; republics alone are safe in establishing 
common schools. Tyranny and aristocracy have 
flourished in the classic halls of universities; but 
the common school, which has stripped the peo- 
ple of their burdens and princes of their privi- 
leges, has ver}^ consistently received scant favor 
from monarchical forms of government. 

There is not a throne of Europe that is not 



The Settlement of Our Country. 245 

yielding its atfcient prerogatives to the rights of 
people in the ratio of the people's advance- 
ment in elementary education. Knowledge is 
power, whether it be with the few or the many. 
The power of the people is conditioned on their 
information. 

The greatest problem which our educational 
system has to solve at the present time, and for 
some time to come, is not how republics may 
produce great geniuses, nor how we may come 
to a Grecian glory in art, a Roman power in 
arms, an English greatness in letters, or a 
French splendor in fashion, but how shall we 
make a homogeneous body politic out of our 
heterogeneous population? This problem can 
be solved only by the common school, which 
shall take the children of American, Irish, Scotch, 
German, Italian, Bohemian, and Scandinavian 
parentage, and so mold and fashion them that 
they will come forth to the duties and privileges 
of American citizenship as characteristic Amer- 
icans, their minds and characters stamped with 
an indelible Americanism, and their hearts hold- 
ing a legitimate pride of citizenship such as 
never animated the bosom of a Roman. Not 
by colleges, not by aristocratic private semi- 
naries, not by the narrow denominational or 



246 Providential Epochs. 

parochial school, but by the broad, thorough, 
democratic, non-sectarian common school is 
this all-important Americanizing work to be 
accomplished. 

As it was the high mission of our fathers to 
establish the common school and thereby secure 
an enlightened and unified Americanism, so 
should it be recognized as our duty to preserve 
the common school from the blighting influence 
of an alien foreignism and an intermeddling 
ecclesiasticism. The Mississippi was never po- 
litically nor religiously predestined to become a 
tributary to the Rhine, the Shannon, or the 
Tiber. 

But an elementary education, however univer- 
sal it may become, does not constitute greatness 
nor secure a people in their liberties. That 
higher more liberal training of intellect and 
genius which results in mental production, in 
the creation of arts, sciences, and letters, is es- 
sential to inspire a lasting pride and love of 
country. Where, it may be asked, are our great 
books, our works of art, our systems of phi- 
losophy, our epics and our oratorios? Have we 
now, or is there to be, a distinctively American 
literature, an American school of art, an Amer- 
ican culture and civilization ? 



The Settlement of Our Country. 247 

Though Matthew Arnold imagined that 
American civilization was identical with Eng- 
lish civilization, and facetiously criticised what 
we were assuming to call "American literature," 
"American art," and "American culture," he 
was for the moment unphilosophical enough to 
suppose that language more than anything else 
gave character to art and letters, and that iden- 
tity of language meant identity of culture and 
of civilization. But the arts and literatures of 
the past have found their true character in the 
conditions, histories, faiths, struggles, aspira- 
tions, and high purposes of peoples more than 
in their languages. And, though our language 
be the English, there are other elements enter- 
ing into the structure of our civilization which 
must make it as distinct from a purely English 
civilization as the Hebrew was distinct from the 
Egyptian, and the Roman from the Greek. 

There is a clearly-defined Americanism in 
the very genius of our political institutions, and 
that Americanism will express itself in American 
arts and letters, in the culture which must here 
be developed. It is possible we are as yet too 
imitative in our art and literature ; but there is 
quite a movement toward liberty and originality 
in recent years which encourages us to look for- 



248 Providential Epochs. 

ward to the coming of artists and authors who 
shall be the founders and masters of distinct- 
ively American schools. America has already 
distinguished herself in the production of in- 
ventive geniuses and of political and military 
geniuses. With such inventors as Franklin, 
Fulton, Morse, Field, Howe, and Edison ; with 
statesmen like Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, 
Webster, Seward, Sumner, and Lincoln ; and with 
generals of the talent and genius of Washing- 
ton, Jackson, Taylor, Scott, Sherman, Thomas, 
Sheridan, and Grant, may we not look for artists 
and poets of equally great powers? Shall we 
confess that Poe, Longfellow, Whittier, and Lo- 
well, proud of them as we may be, are more than 
the heralds and prophets of a mightier singer yet 
to come ? Is there not in store for this people a 
poet who shall be to us what Homer was to the 
Greeks, Virgil to the Romans, Dante to the 
Italians, Goethe to the Germans, Moliere to the 
French, and Milton or Shakespeare was to the 
English — the undisputed and eternal exponent 
of their poetic life and literary greatness? And, 
likewise, may we not find in the artistic endeav- 
orings of this people the promise of an art 
achievement equally great with their achieve- 
ments in science, government, and invention? 



The Settlement of Our Country. 249 

Will he not some day appear who shall be to us 
what Raphael is to the Italians, Rembrandt to 
the Dutch, Claude to the French, Murillo to 
the Spaniards, and Turner to the English — our 
master, a world master? This, it must be, is our 
hope and our destiny in the higher realms of 
national developments and achievements. But 
nations are slow in coming to their best age. 
The critics of our American culture must grant 
us the fair privilege of ample time for full growth 
in the intellectualities. They must consider the 
embarrassing magnitude of the material prob- 
lems obstructing the way of America's literary 
and aesthetic progress. They must not demand 
fruit before its season. 

It took the Greeks six hundred years to come 
to Phidias and the Golden Age ; it took the 
Romans eight hundred years to reach Virgil and 
the Augustan Age ; it took the English fifteen 
hundred years after their first contact with classic 
Rome to rise to a Shakespeare and an Eliza- 
bethan Age. Let us not be discouraged if our 
granaries do outgrow our schools of learning and 
our galleries of art, and if our millionaires are 
more numerous than our poets. The founda- 
tions of culture are being laid in our material 
prosperity. Our political development, wealth, 

17 



250 Providential Epochs. 

and stability will condition national taste and 
refinement. Then from the amalgamation of 
the nations of the earth now going on in America 
there must come a new order of genius which 
shall give forth a new and an original art and lit- 
erature, and attain a higher, nobler culture than 
has yet been known. The intellectual harvest has 
not yet had time to ripen. The seed sown by 
those strong-brained pioneers had mighty prom- 
ise in it ; the fullness of time will reveal that it 
was endowed with the potency of the highest re- 
finements and of the most liberal culture. 

The early settlement of our country had its 
religious characteristics. History will teach the 
philosophic mind that Providence has been 
working toward the establishment of a great 
republic. Protestantism alone can furnish a 
basis for such a government. Roman Catholi- 
cism for fifteen hundred years has been inimical 
to democracy. Its policy has been to quench 
rather than to encourage the spirit of liberty. It 
has never believed in the power of the people. 
It antagonizes the right of free thought and free 
worship. It condemns what is called the right 
of private judgment. The power that rose up 
against the Reformation would rise up against 
republicanism. A nationalism which does not 



The Settlement of Our Country. 251 

recognize the temporal power of the papacy, but 
is established on the great corner-stones of free 
judgment, free speech, free school, and free 
Church, is a menace to the political ambition and 
despotic power of ecclesiastical Romanism. It 
is remarkable that Maryland alone was colonized 
by a Roman Catholic, and that even Calvert 
was not influential, or possibly he was not 
Catholic enough, to prevent Protestantism in the 
form of Episcopalianism gaining the ascendency 
even in that Colony. It is no less remarkable 
that nearly all the Colonies were settled by non- 
conformists, by those independent sects which 
were in the lead of the great Protestant develop- 
ment. The Puritans of New England were the 
true followers of Wyclif, "the morning star of 
the Reformation." They were even in advance 
of the Church of England. The Bible in the 
translations of Wyclif, Coverdale, and Tyndale 
had awakened them to the simplicity of Chris- 
tianity, and they held to that fundamental idea of 
the Reformation, "the Bible is the sole authority 
for belief and conduct." They went a step 
farther, and declared that in all things, in belief, 
conduct, and even Church discipline, the Bible is 
our only authority. This idea came in conflict 
with the doctrine that the Church is authority, 



252 Providential Epochs. 

and the pope or king is head of the Church. 
Returning to apostolic simplicity of form and 
worship the Puritans in England became the 
true leaders of Protestantism. They were perse- 
cuted, their ministers driven from their pulpits, 
and they found safety only in exile. While 
Bacon was teaching the new philosophy, while 
Shakespeare was singing his immortal strains, 
while England was exulting in her golden age of 
letters, the pure-minded, honest, conscientious 
Puritans were driven from their churches and 
their homes to find toleration in a foreign 
country. For a season they found a resting- 
place in Holland. They were pilgrims indeed. 
But one day in 1620, a company of them knelt 
about their faithful pastor, John Robinson, at 
Delft, bade farewell to friends and kindred, and 
turned their faces toward "the continent of the 
future." Those Pilgrims landed in the New 
World as they had departed from the Old World, 
with devout worship, and the settlement of New 
England was inaugurated with song and prayer. 
In the progress of the settlement of the 
Colonies we find that Roger Williams's advanced 
religious ideas, which made even Massachusetts 
too narrow for him, led him to found Rhode 
Island. It has been difficult for the human 



The Settlement of Our Country. 253 

mind to liberate itself from the spirit of intoler- 
ance. The right of private judgment, and the 
right of every man to worship God after the 
dictates of his own conscience, have been relnc- 
tantly acknowledged after centuries of persecu- 
tion. Nor can it be claimed that the Roman 
Catholics have had a monopoly of intolerance. 
The very reformers had a dictatorial spirit. 
lyUther was not entirely free from the long-cul- 
tivated bigotry that characterized Romanism. 
Calvin was a severe and intolerant dogmatist. 
The Established Church of England would not 
tolerate the advanced ideas of religious freedom 
and independence held by the Puritans. The 
Puritans, after having fled from the persecutions 
of Episcopalian bigotry, became the religious 
dictators of the New World, and were as intolerant 
of more advanced ideas as the Church of Eng- 
land had been of theirs. Rhode Island stands 
on the foundation of Roger Williams's courage 
and right to think and worship with a sense of 
responsibility to God alone. 

New Jersey was in a state of turmoil, rather 
than of settlement, until the Quakers, under the 
leadership of Penn, found it an asylum, and 
made it their home. Pennsylvania was hardly 
less religious in its settlement than the land of 



254 Providential Epochs. 

Canaan, and William Penn was, to the persecuted 
Quakers whom he established in this colony, 
both a Moses and a Joshua. The foundation- 
stone of this great Commonwealth was brotherly 
love — the first and greatest principle of Chris- 
tianity. It was by the very consistency of prov- 
idential history that the first peal of independ- 
ence should here ring forth to celebrate the 
dawn of democracy — the new day of equality 
and freedom. 

The Carolinas were settled by the Huguenots, 
Scotch Presbyterians, Puritans, and Quakers, a 
mixtiire of vigorous, heroic, coHScientious mate- 
rials for a Christian community. Georgia, under 
the governorship of the philanthropic Oglethorpe, 
became a most hospitable and inviting country 
to the Moravians, who were the disciples of Huss, 
and the Salzburgers of Austria, who had become 
converts to the Lutheran Reformation. Thither, 
also, came Whitefield and the Wesleys, to lay the 
foundation of what was to be Georgia's great 
Methodism. So strictly moral and Christian 
were the beginnings of this Commonwealth, 
which in our day is one of the most promising 
industrial centers of the South, that laws were 
enacted prohibiting slavery and the sale of in- 
toxicants. It was not until the climate had en- 




JOHN WESLEY. 



The Settlement of Our Country. 255 

ervated those God-fearing first settlers, or their 
children, that slavery was permitted to enter, os- 
tensibly to relieve the whites of the burdens which 
they were not strong enough to bear, and of the 
wage expense which they were too poor to meet. 

Wherever we study this early life in America, 
it appears that religion, in form or spirit, is rec- 
ognized as the foundation of social order; the 
Bible is accepted as authority in social and per- 
sonal morals — its teachings are an essential part 
of the common law; the Sabbath is observed as 
a day of rest and worship; Jesus Christ is adored 
as the Savior of the world ; a Divine Providence 
is admitted to rule over the destinies of nations ; 
religious liberty gradually prevails; intolerance 
disappears ; while simplicity of worship, honesty, 
temperance, frugality, brotherly love, are growing 
characteristics of the people. 

It might have been prophesied that the 
faults and weaknesses of character and educa- 
tion — to which the origin of religious intolerance, 
the witchcraft experiences, and slavery must be 
attributed — would some day disappear. The 
core of that early character was integrity. In 
its development into our noble, free American- 
ism it was destined to outgrow the limitations 
which had been fixed by early customs and train- 



256 Providential Epochs. 

ing, and to produce a richer, more liberal life of 
intellectual aspiration, moral purpose, social hap- 
piness, and political equality. 

In the broad and humane character of our 
land, in our law-protected religious and political 
liberty, in the Christian genius of our American 
institutions, in the growing greatness of our free 
and prosperous Republic, we may almost felici- 
tate ourselves upon having seen the dawning 
splendors of that 

" Oue, far-off, divine event, 
To which the whole creation moves," 

and of which the poets long have sung and seers 
have prophesied. 

A Christian republic is the ideal government 
toward the realization of which every struggle 
for political and religious liberty has contributed. 
The philosophy of history reveals that the con- 
trolling forces which have shaped events and de- 
termined national destinies have been the love 
of freedom and the fear of God. In the long 
conflicts between the rights of the people and 
the pretenses of tyrants, between the conscience 
of the individual and the dictates of ecclesias- 
ticism, liberty and pure religion have been con- 
stant allies. 



The Settlement of Our Country. 257 

Religion, as distinct from superstition, lias 
not destroyed liberty, but has championed her 
cause; while law-protected liberty has not de- 
stroyed religion, but has cleared a way for her 
progress. The true spirit of Christianity and of 
constitutional freedom have never been divorced. 
They have walked hand in hand down our Anglo- 
Saxon history, with songs of hope and progress, 
scattering the precious seed that has sprouted 
and ripened into the laws and institutions of 
great and happy nations. When Alfred the Great 
was laying the foundation of the English consti- 
tution he recognized the ethics of Christianity to 
be fundamental to the establishment of social 
order, the stability of political government, and 
the defense of human rights. From the days of 
this vigorous Saxon king, English law has recog- 
nized the authority of the Bible, and through 
the entire warp and woof of that noble unwritten 
constitution, which has come out of the noisy 
loom of debate and battle, have been woven the 
golden threads of theistic and Christian ideas. 
Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the common 
law of England, says : ' ' Upon the law of nature 
and the law of revelation depend all human 
laws, . . . yet undoubtedly the revealed law 
is of infinitely more authority than that moral 



258 Providential Epochs. 

system which is framed by ethical writers and 
denominated the natural law." Judge Story 
says: "There never has been a period when the 
common law did not recognize Christianity as 
lying at its foundation." Chief-Justice Shea 
claims that "the common law of England came 
from the Sacred Scriptures chiefly." The elo- 
quent Erskine, in his famous prosecution of the 
publisher of the "Age of Reason," exclaimed: 
" The Christian religion is the very foundation of 
the law of the land." We have inherited that 
common law, and to eliminate therefrom the 
spirit of Christianity and the recognition of the 
moral authority of the Bible, would be to under- 
mine the beautiful fabric, to rob the noble struc- 
ture of the very cement of its unity and stability. 
When our fathers brought their religion with 
them to this great continent, they seemed almost 
inspired as, with prayer and hymn and ordi- 
nances of Christian worship, they laid the founda- 
tion of our greatness, and planted the germs of 
our national prosperity. Christian conviction 
stood at the helm of the Mayfloiver ; Christian 
hope unfurled her white sails for a new world; 
Christian faith, with a song of praise and a 
prayer of dependence, leaped from her deck to 
Plymouth Rock; and Christian conscience took 



The Settlement of Our Country. 259 

this land for Christian liberty. A thoughtful, 
serious people; a people with Bibles and relig- 
ious scruples; a people given to worship and 
prayer; a people believing in Providence, and 
remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy; a 
people of heroic mold amid dangers, privations, 
and struggles, long and terrible, — fashioned the 
strong framework of our Ship of State. 

"We know what masters laid thy keel; 
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel ; 

Who made each mast and sail and rope ; 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat; 
In what a forge and what a heat 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope." 

For, whatever the poet's intention, no song that 
celebrates our national glory and origin can be 
true that does not include the Pilgrims with the 
Revolutionary fathers in that noble band of 
heroes whose love of God and liberty gave to 
our national history its mighty initial impulse. 

Referring to the Protestants who first peo- 
pled this country, De Tocqueville says: "They 
brought with them into the New World a form 
of Christianity which I can not better describe 
than by styling it a democratic and republican 
religion. This sect contributed powerfully to 
the establishment of democracy and a republic; 



26o Providential Epochs. 

and from the earliest settlement of the emi- 
grants, politics and religion contracted an alli- 
ance which has never been dissolved." Again 
he says: "In the United States the sovereign 
authority is religions, . . . There is no 
country in the whole world in which the Chris- 
tian religion retains a greater influence over the 
souls of men than in America, and there can be 
no greater proof of its utility, and of its con- 
formity to human nature, than that its influence 
is most powerfully felt over the most enlight- 
ened and free nation of the earth." But one 
more statement of this noble writer is needed 
to prevent a misapprehension of a previous as- 
sertion. He says: "Religion in America takes 
no direct part in the government of society, but 
it must neverthel'ess be regarded as the fore- 
most of the political institutions of that country ; 
for, if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it 
facilitates the use of free institutions." These 
are the careful, philosophical conclusions of one 
of the profoundest students of our American in- 
stitutions — of the greatest political writer of the 
nineteenth century. With Charles Sumner, every 
American citizen of noble feeling must exclaim: 
"Honor and gratitude to his memory!" 

While Massachusetts remembers her Christian 



The Settlement of Our Country. 261 

founders: her Standisli, her Carver, her Endicott, 
and Winthrop; while the Empire State remem- 
bers her Stiiyvesant, and her Dutch Protestant 
origin; while Connecticut remembers her Puri- 
tan colonizers, her Eaton and Davenport, her 
Vane and Winthrop, and the ministers who 
founded her glorious Yale; while Rhode Island 
remembers her Baptist sires and her Roger Will- 
iams; while Georgia remembers her Oglethorpe, 
her Methodists and Moravians; while Pennsyl- 
vania remembers her Quaker fathers and her 
noble Penn; and while Americans all remember 
the first settlers of the original Colonies from 
which our glorious States have arisen, — they 
will remember that they are not sprung from 
the degenerate loins of Atheism ; that they have 
not inherited the enervated laws of a Christless 
infidelity; that they do not belong to a race of 
Bible-haters and Sabbath-breakers; that they 
are not part of a Godless civilization. Nor can 
this become an infidel nation until it has plowed 
up the bones of its Christian ancestors, and 
hurled them into the ingulfing sea from the 
New England shores, which they have conse- 
crated for two hundred and fifty years. This 
can not become a Bibleless, Sabbathless people 
until they have forgotten the greatest champions 



262 Providential Epochs. 

of liberty and wisest legislators of State that 
dignify their history. This can not become an 
Atheistic nation until it has ceased to read its 
charters of liberty, and has forgotten the events 
which have forged its greatness. 

The Revolutionary fathers, in times that tried 
men's souls, were not ashamed to acknowledge 
their dependence upon God. Those serious, de- 
voted, firm-souled men believed in the Provi- 
dence that fights the battles of justice and of 
liberty. Blot out the expressions of faith, rev- 
erence, and thanksgiving, with which those old 
worthies recognized the providence and author- 
ity of God, and a black stain is put on every 
great oration that fell from the inspired lips of 
that majestic Revolutionary eloquence. Look 
into the speeches and correspondence of those 
great nation-makers — what respect for religion! 
what a noble trust in God ! On the eve of the 
struggle for independence, Boston is electrified 
by the patriotic eloquence of Joseph Warren. 
" Like Harrington he wrote, like Cicero he spoke, 
like Hampden he lived, and like Wolfe he died." 
Urging the people on to liberty, he said: "If 
you perform your part, you must have the 
strongest confidence that the same Almighty 
Being who protected your pious and venerable 





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JOHN HANCOCK. 



The Settlement of Our Couatry. 263 

forefathers; who enabled them to turn a barren 
wilderness into a frnitfnl field; who so often 
made bare his arm for their salvation, — will still 
be mindful of yon, their offspring. May this 
Almighty Being gracionsly preside in all our 
councils! May he direct ns to such measures 
as he himself shall approve, and be pleased to 
bless! May we ever be a people favored of 
God!" Then John Hancock, still nearer the 
Revolutionary beginning, raised his voice to 
speak such golden words as these: "I have the 
most animating confidence that the present 
struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for 
America. And let us play the man for our God 
and for the cities of our God. While we are 
using the means in our power, let us humbly 
commit our righteous cause to the great Lord 
of the universe, who loveth righteousness and 
hateth iniquity. And, having secured the ap- 
probation of our hearts by a faithful and un- 
wearied discharge of our duty to our country, 
let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands 
of Him who raiseth up and putteth down the 
empires and kingdoms of the world as he pleases ; 
and, with cheerful submission to his sovereign 
will, devoutly say: 'Although the fig-tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vines; 



264 Providential Epochs. 

the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field 
shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off 
from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
stalls, — yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will 
joy in the God of our salvation.' " 

Still later, Patrick Henry thrills the Colonies 
with such words as : " An appeal to arms, and 
to the God of hosts is all that is left us. 
Three millions of people, armed in the holy 
cause of liberty, and in such a country as that 
which we possess, are invincible by any force 
which our enemies can send against us. Be- 
sides, sir, we shall not fight our battle alone. 
There is a just God who presides over the des- 
tinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to 
fight our battles for us." Samuel Adams, who 
hardly ever delivered a great speech, or wrote 
an article in defense of human rights, without 
reference to the authority of God, and who 
moved that the Continental Congress be opened 
with prayer, drew up the report on the rights of 
the Colonists, and therein laid down this basis for 
their rights as Christians : " These," he says, 
" may be best understood by reading, and care- 
fully studying the institutes of the great Law- 
giver and head of the Christian Church, which 
are to be found clearly written and promulgated 



The Settlement of Our Country. 265 

in the New Testament." John Adams, who 
called the Bible the " best book in the world," 
wrote to his wife on the day following the vote 
on the " Declaration of Independence," saying : 
"The second day of July ought to be commem- 
orated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts 
of devotion to God Almighty." And Washing- 
ton himself, the Father of our Country, thus 
closes the letter in which he resigns his commis- 
sion as general-in-chief of the victorious Ameri- 
can armies : " I consider it as an indispensable 
duty to close this last solemn act of my official 
life by commending the interests of our dearest 
country to the protection of Almighty God, and 
those who have the superintendence of them to 
his holy keeping." In his letter to the govern- 
ors he closes with these noble words: "I now 
make an earnest prayer that God would have 
you and the State over which you preside in his 
holy protection ; that he would incline the hearts 
of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subor- 
dination and obedience to government; to en- 
tertain a brotherly affection and love for one an- 
other, for their fellow-citizens of the United 
States at large, and particularly for their breth- 
ren who have served in the field ; and finally, 

that he would most graciously be pleased to dis- 

18 



266 Providential Epochs. 

pose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to 
demean ourselves with that charity, humility, 
and pacific temper of mind, which were the char- 
acteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed 
religion, without a humble imitation of whose 
example in these things we can never hope to 
be a happy nation." Delivering the First Inau- 
gural as first President of the United States, he 
said: "It would be particularly improper to omit, 
in the first official act, my fervent supplications 
to that Almighty Being who rules over the uni- 
verse, who presides in the councils of nations, 
and whose providential aids can supply every 
human defect ; that his benediction may conse- 
crate to the liberties and happiness of the people 
of the United States a government instituted by 
themselves for those essential purposes, and may 
enable every instrument employed in its admin- 
istration to execute with success the functions 
allotted to his charge. No people can be bound 
to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand 
which conducts the affairs of men, more than 
the people of the United States. Every step by 
which they have advanced to the character of 
an independent nation seems to have been dis- 
tinguished by some token of providential agency." 
Thus spoke our God-fearing, Christian fathers. 



The Settlement of Our Country. 267 

But more than this, not a great oration ever 
rolled from the lips of Anglo-Saxon eloquence in 
defense of human rights that had not in it an 
acknowledgment of the authority of God's law, 
and a mention of God's name with reverence 
and faith. The blunt John Bright, the scholarly 
Sumner, the silver-tongued Clay, the Titanic 
Webster, the classical Everett, the polished Lee, 
the vigorous Henry, the impassioned Otis, the 
Demosthenean Chatham, the Ciceronian Burke, 
never spoke an immortal oration that was not 
adorned with a reverential mention of the name 
and law of God. And still further, the name of 
God and a recognition of the authority of his 
law are found in every great written instrument 
that has secured for man his rights and liberties 
throughout English and American political his- 
tory. We find the name of God, and a recog- 
nition of his authority, engraven on the founda- 
tion-stone of English liberty, written in the 
famous Magna Charta of King John, in the 
"Declaration of Independence," in the "Articles 
of Confederation and Perpetual Union between 
the States," in the " Emancipation Proclamation." 
On nearly every grand monument that celebrates 
the triumphs of human rights and the glorious 
progress of liberty in America, is inscribed some 



268 Providential Epochs. 

reverential recognition of the Deity. In the 
corner-stones of a hundred thousand churches 
that jewel this land from sea to sea, lies a copy 
of the Word of God, which says : " Worship the 
Lord in the beauty of holiness." In the corner- 
stones of four hundred colleges, established for 
the liberal education of American youth, lies a 
copy of that Bible which says: "Receive knowl- 
edge rather than choice gold ; for wisdom is 
better than rubies." In the corner-stones of 
hundreds of hospitals and asylums and other be- 
nevolent institutions, lies a copy of that Bible 
which teaches that of all the graces that adorn 
manhood, the greatest is sweet charity. Every 
great monument reared to honor heroism and 
patriotic devotion, or to commemorate any great 
triumph of freedom, from the granite shaft of 
Bunker Hill to the noble piles that celebrate 
the deeds and devotion of the late saviors of the 
Union, every one was begun and unveiled with 
prayer. We must plow up these prayer-planted, 
Bible-holding corner-stones, and hurl them with 
Plymouth Rock into the sea, before we can cease 
to be a Christian nation. Nearly every great mon- 
ument, every great legislative and judicial body, 
every great code of laws and charter of rights, 
every great liberty-advancing revolution, every 

W 93 



The Settlement of Our Country, 269 

great book, every great oration, every great poet 
and orator, every great statesman and judge, 
every great soldier, patriot, reformer, and philan- 
thropist, every great discoverer and inventor, 
hero and martyr, that has glorified our Anglo- 
Saxon history has paid a just, reverential tribute 
to Almighty God, to the Holy Bible, and to the 
Christian religion. We are a Christian people, 
and our civilization is the glorious and immortal 
offspring of the Divine Providence. 

In the character of our laws, and the genius 
of our institutions we find the culmination of the 
co-operative . influence of the spirit of liberty 
and the spirit of religion, which, through the 
ages, has been making for righteousness, and 
peace — a righteousness based on the eternal law 
of God, a peace founded on the inalienable rights 
of man. 



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